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FOR 

POULTRY MEN AND POULTRY WOMEN 

OF THE GREAT WEST 



THE 

Western Poultry Guide 



BY 



Twelve Successful Western 
Poultrymen 



FRICE si.oo 



EDITED BY 

C. F. WILLIAMS 

EDITOR 

NORTHWEST POULTRY JOURNAL 

{OLDEST, LARGEST, BEST IN THE WEST) 
SALEM, OREGON 



^ 







C. F. WILLIAMS 

Editor and Manager 

Northwest Poultry '^Journal 

«^^LEM, OREGON 



©C1.A332960 



A. 



PREFACE 



THE only apology we have to offer in submitting 
this poultry book to the reading public, is that 
we could not publish a more extensive and 
complete work and supply one that covers every 
phase of the poultry industry. To do this would 
require a book many times the size of this and even 
then some facts would be omitted. Nearly every 
man you meet, who is in the poultry business, has 
an idea of his own, as to how a man should proceed 
to accomplish certain results. There are so many 
ideas that any attempt to tell the "all" of how to 
buy, mate, incubate, breed, cull, house, feed, and 
market poultry would fail to meet the entire approval 
of all poultry critics. 

In preparing the following chapters, it has been 
the constant desire of our writers to make the 
chapters full of common-sense statements and as 
complete in detail as possible and yet not produce a 
book that is tiresome to read and understand. 

There are many theoretical books on the market, 
which tell in their way how to realize a success in 
the poultry business. There is quite a difference 
between theory and practice. Someone has correctly 
stated: "You do not know that you can do a thing 
until you have actually done it." For this reason, we 
have divided this book into chapters, taking up the 
most impoi-tant subjects connected with poultry. 
Each subject was assigned to a man who has actually 
made a success and can write from experience. Such 
advice is the only advice that is worth heeding. When 
assigning the subjects, we emphatically requested 
that only conservative statements be given. 

The last thougnt we desire to leave with you is 
this : If you are now making a success in the poultry 
business, do not be too anxious to try out new ideas. 
C. F. WILLIAMS, Editor. 



Published by 

Northwest Poultry Journal Publishing Co. 
Salem, Oregon 



CHAPTER I 



IN THE BEGINNING 

By Charles McAlister, Seattle, Washingtcr. 






OST people have an 
idea that poultry 
culture is a simple 
matter, an occupa- 
tion that requires 
no particular preparation, and 
one that affords much pleasure 
and profit with very little 
work, care and attention. It 
will be our earnest endeavor to 
dispel this idea of the poultry 
business, in this chapter, by 
presenting the facts with rela- 
tion to poultry culture, as they 
are and as they exist today, 
that the beginner who may 
perchance read the pages of 
this book, may not be misled 
by what he may read, but on 
the contrary, when he shall 
have absorbed what is herein 
written, he may have a more 




Charles McAlister 



correct idea of what poultry 
culture really is; a more extended conception of what is required tO' 
equip him with the knowledge and experience that is so essential toi 
insure final success. 

A general knowledge of the fundamental principles of poultry 
culture may be acquired by study of the methods of others, and by 
reading treatise upon the subject. Experience cannot be so acquired, 
and only comes by a gradual mastery of the art of poultry culture by 
careful and studious application as we go along. 

There are two elements that enter largely into the successful 
culture of poultry. An aptitude for the occupation. In other words, 
a love for the feathered tribe. Especial training, that can be acquired 
only by association with the business in a manner that its smallest 



6 The Western Poultry Guide 

detail is observed and understood. The first can never be acquired, 
and without the first, the second becomes a task that is difficult to 
master. 

These facts are already so well known, and have so often been 
the subject of articles in the poultry press of the country, that it 
seems almost superfluous to mention them, but it is for the reason 
that they are so continually disregarded, put aside or disbelieved, 
that it becomes imperative as an introduction to this chapter to call 
attention to the uselessness of, without some practical knowledge of 
the business, trying to do that for which they are thus unfitted, 
regardless of, and utterly neglecting the ever-increasing warning 
daily given by the many absolute failures in the business. 

As all knowledge is gained by observation, reflection and experi- 
ence, and as a knowledge of the business is absolutely necessary, it is 
suggested that a person desiring to take up practical poultry culture, 
should commence in a modest manner, with a few birds at the first, 
and as experience is gained, to gradually add to the stock if it is 
found to be a paying investment. In other words, go slow. Be 
willing to start from the ground and gradually work up. Mind this, 
the man who starts at the top, generally, if not always, strikes the 
ground with a dull and sickening thud. The keynote to success is 
taking up the business in a small way, mastering its first principles 
and then branching out gradually as one's experience broadens and 
the demands seem to indicate. 

It has been demonstrated time and again, that no amount of 
-capital invested in modern equipment, together with the best stock to 
be obtained, will make a success of poultry culture. Various things 
besides inclination and capital must be considered; and not a person, 
unless they have tried it, can possibly imagine or conceive how many 
difficulties there are to overcome, and how much knowledge there is 
"to acquire, and numberless things to learn, before one can hope even 
for moderate success. 

Conditions contribute largely, too, in the degree of success that 
is met in poultry culture. By this we mean location, climatic condi- 
tions, character of the soil, and general surroundings. It is always 
desirable to have the soil of a character that will drain readily, with 
a slope that will permit of facing the buildings toward the south or 
east, that they may receive all the benefit possible from the sunshine. 
Shade also is a very necessary requirement, and if not natural upon 
the ground used, then trees should be planted to fui-nish it. 

Any variety of fruit trees are good, but preferably cherries or 
plum, as they grow rapidly. Plum is especially suitable, and it is 
claimed that poultry keep down the ravages of the curculio. If the 
yards are extensive, fruit trees in variety should be the rule. 

In this coast country, buildings are not of so great importance as 
in colder climates. Any building that is without draughts, no matter 



The Western Poultry Guide 7 

how cheaply constructed, will answer, but they must be well ventilated, 
well lighted and roomy. We have always advocated scratching shed 
houses of some character, and we believe them to be very desirable 
in the Pacific Northwest, where there is so much rain during the 
winter months. The houses should be constiiicted in a manner that 
they may be readily cleaned and fumigated as a preventative against 
vermin of every character. Especially should the perches, nest-boxes 
and dropping board be portable, that they may be thoroughly cleansed 
when desired. The runs should be made to conform to the space to 
be occupied, and the fences are much more satisfactory if the base is 
made of two one-foot boards, thus preventing the males of the different 
pens fighting. With the Asiatic varieties a fence four feet in height 
IS sufficient, but with the Mediteranean varieties a higher fence is 
preferable. All feed and water receptacles should be of such a 
character as to be easily cleaned and kept in a sanitary condition, for 
fresh water and good clean food is half the battle won. Perches 
should be about two inches in width and rounded on top. We do not 
believe in flat perches. Nests should be large enough to be com- 
fortable, and sufficient number in each compartment so that there 
will be no danger of the birds fighting for nest room. 

Which is the best breed, is a question that has never been decided, 
and in the selection of a breed or variety, the beginner should be 
governed entirely by his taste or fancy. What pleases one does not 
appeal to another, and so it resolves itself into a matter of choice, in 
which the individual must be the sole judge. 

After selection of the breed or variety has been settled, however, 
procure the best that your means will permit. If you have not the 
means to purchase a pen of high-class birds, of well established 
ancestry, then purchase a trio and work up from that. The natural 
tendency of the species is to retrograde in breeding, and the idea that 
so many beginners seem to have, that they can begin with cheap 
stock and gradually improve it, is a delusion that has sent many, 
many poultry raisers upon the rocks of failure. It is a fatal error 
in poultry culture, and one that has been the cause of more failures 
than any other one thing. Just remember, the best is none too good, 
and govern yourself accordingly. 

Now that we have outlined what is really necessary for the 
beginner to understand as he approaches the study of poultry cultui'e 
from a practical standpoint, we may perhaps be permitted to offer a 
few words of caution and advice, based upon the experience gained 
by the hard school of actual work and practice. We do not wish to 
discourage any one from entering this pleasant field of employment, 
or make those who may have already taken up the vocation, imagine 
they have a more difficult task than it really is, but we would not have 
anyone imagine that the field of poultry culture offers a simple and 
easy manner of making a livelihood, which one may take up and thereby 



8 The Westei-n Poultry Guide 

avoid the tiresome duties that are a portion of every line of business, 
vocation or profession. To make a success of it, requires the same close 
application and attention that any other business requires, and as we 
have advised, the keynote of success is in commencing in a small way 
and gradually branching out and enlarging as the circumstances may 
demand and require. Nearly all of the successful poultry breeders 
of today have grown from a small beginning, and gradually advanced 
to the prominence they occupy today, and could we know the story of 
their success, it would tell us of many a hard struggle during their 
early years in poultry culture. Many a time they have been discour- 
aged in their efforts to solve the problems that came to them, and to 
overcome the obstacles that presented themselves from time to time, 
but they have put them all aside, and today stand upon the summit 
of success. We see the venture at the crowning point of its success, 
but we do not understand what it has taken to bring it to this very 
attractive and alluring position, and we are apt to become over- 
enthusiastic and imagine the field of poultry culture is an easy and 
charming occupation. We cannot conceive the time, the energy, the 
study, the work, that it has taken to arrive at such a state of 
proficiency in poultry culture, nor can we understand that the way 
has been a series of disappointments and much discouragement. We 
read the glowing accounts of these great poultry plants and of the 
returns they are bringing to their owners, and it looks so simple and 
easy that we become dissatisfied with our own occupation, for when 
the "hen fever" comes it generally comes with a vengeance, and for 
a time all other considerations are subordinated to it. When we are 
under the spell we are apt to figure a little too, and those figures are 
so alluring, and figures don't lie, and the proposition works out so 
nicely and so advantageously, that in our mind we imagine our 
fortune as good as made. We never think of failure, and our mind 
seems unable to grasp the idea that perhaps it might not be so great 
a success as we have anticipated, this chicken business, for our 
enthusiasm has caused us to see ourselves in possession of a great 
poultry plant, with long lines of brooder houses, properly heated, with 
automatic devices that are working to perfection, with our incubator 
cellars equipped with up-to-date machines, hatching chicks by the 
hundreds, and the demand for our product in broilers greater than 
the supply. We can see these new hatched chicks start at one end 
of our brooder house, and in ten weeks come out the other end, and 
the dollars rolling into our bank account. 

It is an alluring picture, and it is not strange that people lose 
their heads over it, and allow their imagination to get the better of 
their judgment. The picture is drawn for a purpose, and that is to 
warn the enthusiastic person, with a bad case of "hen fever," that as 
a rule he entirely overlooks the distance between the start, and the 
plant that he has allowed his imagination to anticipate, for in the 
interval there are years of toil and study and care and attention, that 



The Western Poultry Guide 9 

has gone to make the success of the poultryman who stands at the top. 

Many a man, under the charm of a desire to be where the experi- 
enced poultryman stands, but without his knowledge and experience, 
has gone into the poultry business only to make a failure, give up in 
disgust, condemn the vocation as a snare and delusion, and thereby 
keep some other person from entering the field who is endowed with 
qualities that would make a success of it. On the other hand, if they 
had started in a modest manner, and by study, care and application, 
learned the business, the result might have been very different. 

So in conclusion, we again say to any person contemplating entering 
the field of poultry culture, go slow. Be as enthusiastic as you please, 
but be patient and careful. Give close attention to detail, and study 
the business as you would any other business proposition, for in the 
poultry business, like every other business or vocation, you will get. 
out of it just what you put into it, and if you are adapted to it, and 
are patient and careful, and are willing to commence at the bottom, 
and to learn the business as you go along, sooner or later success will 
crown your efforts. 



10 



The Western Poultry Guide 



CHAPTER II 



COMPARISON OF THE BREEDS AND VARIETIES 

By G. W. Grebe, Boise, Idaho, Veteran Poultry Breeder and 
Manufacturer of Incubators and Brooders. 





G. W. Grebe 



HERE is a best breed or variety for 
each man and for each location and 
climate. The question, "Which is the 
best breed?" is generally always an- 
swered in a way that would lead the 
beginner to believe that all varieties were alike 
and it simply remained to put the right care 
and feed before them to make them all do 
equally well. 

This is not true. The different breeds and 
varieties are as different in habits and tem- 
perament as they are in color and form. 

Some markets pay more for large, well- 
fattened table fowls than they do for eggs. Some markets pay the 
better price for two-pound fries. Some climates are more suitable to 
light, active fowls and some climates are more adapted to the heavy 
varieties. 

Every breed and every variety has its proper place, and while 
some poultrymen will make a success with any variety, still they will 
always make a greater success with the particular variety that is 
adapted to that pai'ticular location. 

Every successful poultryman, whether he breeds one or a dozen 
varieties, has his favorite, and that favorite is generally the one that 
brings him the greatest cash return on the amount of feed and labor 
invested. 

In making a strict comparison of the breeds a writer is always 
at a great disadvantage owing to the fact that he is writing to and 
for those who breed all varieties and he cannot generally give the 
weak points of certain breeds in certain locations without treading 
heavily on some breeder's toes. Each breed has a weak point as well 
as many good ones, and in order to be fair with all and give full 
value of information to the beginner these weak points should be 
fearlessly mentioned. 

The space and time forbids taking up all the varieties in the 
American Standard. Furthermore, the writer in this instance has not 
handled quite all of them. Consequently we can only take up those 



The Western Poultry Guide 11 

most popular breeds and those with which the writer is most familiar. 

However, the comparison will give a good idea of what to look for 

in selecting a variety and how to get the right breed for the right place. 

THE IDEAL FOWL. 

The ideal bird would be one that could be depended on to — 

1. Lay in winter. 

2. Lay in the fall, summer, and spring. 

3. Lay eggs that would hatch in all seasons. 

4. Grow rapidly to the two-pound weight. 

5. Mature early. 

6. Fatten easily. 

7. Dress and finish with small amount of waste. 

8. Weigh heavy when fattened and dressed. 

9. Be hardy; live and thrive well as chick and fowl. 

10. Range, hustle, forage for its own if necessary. 

11. Be gentle and easily handled. 

12. Have beauty of shape and color. 

13. Stand confinement without loss of vigor. 

14. Cause the attendant a minimum amount of labor. 

If there were such a bird as I have outlined there would be no 
necessity of comparing breeds. Everyone would have that one ideal 
kind of fowl and the others would be out of existence. 

But it is entirely out of harmony with nature to produce such an 
animal, insect or bird or plant. 

Man is not perfect and those things which man calls ideal may not 
be ideal for the animal, bird or plant, and consequently we can never 
hope to produce the ideal bird that will conform to all our requirements 
exactly as we would like in all climates and under all conditions. 

We can strive to attain perfection and by using good judgment 
attain a very high degree toward it. Some of the breeds we now 
have will, if placed in the proper environment and given ideal care 
and attention, come so near to perfection in all points that man should 
not ask for anything better. 

BREED CHARACTERISTICS. 

We will now take up the strong and weak points of the different 
breeds and varieties, always bearing in mind that those things which 
are called weak points in some climates are the strongest ones in 
other climates. 

Many people have the idea that the most profitable bird is the one 
that lays in the winter when eggs are high. This is not always the 
case. The profits must be figured on the year, or on several years, 
and many times the summer layer will bring the highest cash return 
in a year. Price of eggs and the market conditions must be studied 
-In order to determine which breed or variety is best. 



12 The Western Poultry Guide 

Those breeds that lay heavily in winter, always lay less in spring 
and summer and the winter laying bird sometimes produces eggs the 
following spring that are weak in fertility and do not hatch a large 
percentage of strong chicks. 

The breed that fattens easily will be more apt to put on a certain 
amount of fat in the winter, which keeps the body warm and helps to 
fill the egg basket. On the other hand the fat bird will not lay at 
all when the weather turns warm. 

White Leghorns — (Conclusions drawn from eleven years of breed- 
ing in writer's own yards. Experiments with seven different strains. 
Reports from 104 breeders in the Northwest. Writer's experiments 
made in Nebraska and Idaho) — Extra good spring and summer layers. 
Poor winter layers unless the climate is mild or unless housed warm» 
Fair fall layers. Extra good hatches may be expected from the eggs. 
Grow fairly rapid to the fry size. Mature early. Fatten poorly. 
Dress and finish poor. Weigh poor. Hardiness and livability of 
chicks extra good. Range and forage extra good. Not very gentle. 
Stand confinement fairly well. 

This variety is very active and is not heavily feathered. This is 
ideal for warm climates, as they seldom get too fat and are active 
enough to keep the blood circulating when the weather is not too cold. 
In extremely cold weather they are not likely to turn out a yield of 
eggs, but the large hatches the following spring, and the hardiness 
of the chicks will make up for the lack of eggs in the winter. They 
are rather wild and hard to handle but this wildness and activity 
has its use and for those who have large range where they can make 
use of their foraging ability will gain by the wildness which to others 
is a weak point. They make poor roaster fowls and the market that 
pays well for frys and broilers is better for the White Leghorn than 
where roasters or heavy table fowls are desired, because all young 
cockerels in this variety should be disposed of at less than two and 
one-half pound weight. After six months the cockerels are almost 
unfit to eat. The hens should be carried over through the second year 
of laying, because they do not bring much on the market when killed 
and so we must get as many eggs as possible out of the bird before it is 
sold. The White Leghorn is easy on the attendant, as they can be 
housed in large numbers and seldom have to be broken up from setting. 

Brown Leghorns — (Conclusions drawn from three years in writer's 
own yards. Two strains. Reports from twenty-eight Western breed- 
ers. Writer's experience in Nebraska and Idaho) — Same as White. 

Buff Leghorns — (Conclusions drawn fi-om ten years in writer's 
own yards. Eight strains. Reports from forty-two Western breeders. 
Experience mostly in Idaho) — As winter layers, good. As summer 
and fall layers, fair. As spring layers, fair. The eggs hatch only 
fair, and sometimes poor unless extra attention is given to the breeding 
stock. They grow to the fry size rapidly and mature early. Fatten. 



The Western Poultry Guide 13 

fairly well and dress fairly good for table use, but do not weigh over 
four pounds on the average. The chicks and mature birds are hardy. 
Range and foragers, good. Not very gentle but more so than the 
other Leghorns. Stand confinement fairly well. Can be housed in 
large numbers, but will cause the attendant some trouble in breaking 
up setters during the summer. 

This variety of Leghorns is a trifle larger and more heavily 
feathered than any of the others. They are also somewhat less active 
and will fatten better. This, of course, makes them better as winter 
layers and poorer as summer layers, but better as table fowls. They 
have a tendency to set more than any other Leghorn, and coops for 
breaking up the broody hens should be in convenient places, so the 
attendant does not have to carry them a great distance to and from 
"the houses. 

The Buff Leghorn comes near being in the all-purpose class, but 
great care must be taken of the breeding stock to make the eggs 
hatchable. The birds from which hatching eggs are to be taken in 
the spring should not be allowed to lay too heavily during the winter 
and should be kept active and scratching all the time. Green grass in 
abundance should be given the breeders and when grass cannot be 
■obtained they should have clover or alfalfa hay leaves in addition to 
beets, mangels or sprouted oats. 

White Wyandottes — (Conclusions from eight years in writer's 
yards. Four strains. Reports from ninety-two Western breeders. 
Experiments in Idaho) — As winter layers they are good. As spring 
layers, fair. Summer and fall layers, fair. Eggs hatch very poorly 
but can be made to hatch fairly well by giving careful attention to the 
breeders. Grow to the fry size rapidly and make extra good bi'oilers. 
Mature fairly early. Fatten easily. Dress and finish for table use 
good. Average weight, fairly good. Hardiness fair. As foragers 
fair. Gentle and easily handled. Stand confinement well. Cannot be 
boused in very large numbers and must be broken from setting quite 
often during the spring and summer. 

The White Wyandotte makes the ideal bird for a quick broiler and 
is of a neat size and shape for table use. They also make very good 
winter layers, but the eggs are the most difficult to hatch of any 
variety in the writer's experience. The eggs do not run as uniform in 
size and shape and color and this of course makes some difference in 
the heat applied to the eggs. To obtain fairly good results in hatching 
rhe eggs from this variety one should follow the directions for feeding 
breeders given in the article above on Buff Leghorns. Also one should 
select only those eggs that are smooth of shell and even in size. 

Buff Wyandottes — (Conclusions from eight years in writer's ov^ti- 
yards. Three strains. Reports from five Western breeders. Experi- 
ments in Idaho) — Almost the same as White, except that the eggs are 
a little heavier shelled and harder to hatch. They are also a little 



14 The Western Poultry Guide 

better as winter layers and poorer as summer layers, owing to a 
heavier feathering in most strains which carry the Cochin cross. 

Barred Plyvimith Rocks — (Conclusions from five years in writer's 
yards. Four different strains. Reports from fifty-five Western 
breeders. Experiments in Nebraska and Idaho) — As winter layers, 
fair. Spring and summer layers, good. Fall layers, poor. The eggs 
hatch fairly well. Growth and maturity is fairly good but not quite 
as rapid as the Wyandotte. Extra good as table fowls. Weight is 
good. Chicks and mature birds hardy. As foragers, fair. Gentle 
and easily handled. Stand confinement well. Cannot be housed in 
vei-y large numbers and are inclined to set quite often in the summer. 

This variety is a good all-purpose fowl, but the young stock must 
be watched carefully and forced to maturity or they are apt to pass 
over the winter and not begin laying until the following spring. A 
bran-mash every day, with plenty of grass range, wheat and oats, 
shade and plenty of fresh water are the essentials for young Barred 
Rocks. 

White Plymouth Rocks — (Conclusions from eight years in writer's 
yards. Three strains. Reports from ten Western breeders. Experi- 
ments in Idaho) — Same as Barred. 

Rhode Island Reds — (Conclusions from two years in writer's yards. 
Two strains. Reports from ninety-five Western breeders. Experi- 
ments in Idaho) ^ — As winter layers good. Summer layers fair. Fall 
layers poor. Eggs hatch fairly well but breeders must be given extra 
care or the fertility and strength of germs will be poor. Growth to 
fry size fair. Early maturity fair. Fatten easily. Dress a nice 
yellow table fowl and weigh fairly well. Chicks and mature birds are 
hardy. As foragers fair. Gentle and easily handled. Stand confine- 
ment well. Inclined to be very broody in the spring and will cause 
the attendant much work.^ 

This variety, like the Rock and Wyandotte, is a good all-purpose 
fowl, but the eggs are rather difficult to hatch and the breeders 
must be allowed to rest during the winter in order to get good hatches 
from them the following spring. 

Light Brahmas — (Conclusions from three years of breeding. Three 
strains. Reports from eight Western breeders. Experiments in 
Nebraska) — As winter layers, good. Spring layers, fair. Summer 
and fall layers, poor. The eggs are rather hard to hatch, owing to 
the thickness of the shell and the tendency to inactivity on the part 
of the fowls. Growth and maturity is slow. Fatten very easily. 
Dress the largest and heaviest as table fowls. Chicks and mature 
birds are hardy. Not good foragers. Very gentle. Stand confine- 
ment in a three-foot fence. Cannot be housed in large numbers and 
are inclined to set quite often in the spring and summer. 

This breed is an ideal table bird for roaster purpose. They are 
the largest birds in the American Standard and the meat is tender 



The Western Poultry Guide 15 

and juicy even in the old birds, but they are not great egg producers 
and do not range far. This breed should be used in place of turkeys 
where one has limited quarers and cannot allow turkeys to range. 
The turkey would not stand close confinement, while the Brahma could 
be kept in small pens and would dress as large and bring about as 
much on the Thanksgiving market as the turkey. The Brahma does 
not grow as rapidly as the turkey and therefore should be hatched as 
early as possible in the months of January, February and March, so 
as to attain the size desired before the holidays. The breeders in this 
■variety should have the same attention regarding rest in winter and 
the proper feed, etc., so as to produce better hatches in the spring. The 
eggs should have a trifle higher heat and a little more moisture during 
the incubating period. 

Buff Orpingtons — (Conclusions from three years' breeding. Four 
strains. Reports from thirty-five Western breeders. Experiments in 
Idaho) — As winter layers, good. Spring layers, fair. Summer layers, 
fair. Fall layers, fair. Eggs hatch extra good. Growth and ma- 
turity rapid. Fatten easily. Make good large table fowls. Chicks 
and mature birds hardy. As foragers, fair but must not be allowed 
to get too fat and lazy. Gentle and easily handled. Stand confine- 
ment well. Cannot be housed in very large numbers and cause the 
attendants considerable work in the spring on account of broodiness. 

The Buff Orpington lays very evenly through the four seasons of 
the year. They do not lay heavily in the spring. In fact, the yield 
from this variety is about the same in winter and fall as it is in the 
spring. They are the only heavy variety that has come under the 
writer's observation that will lay a large percentage of hatchable eggs 
for incubation. But they must be broken from setting continuously 
during the spring and summer in order to obtain a good yield of eggs. 
With this variety one should have broody coops in every house and 
the broody hens should be taken from the nests as soon as they show 
the least sign of broodiness. The Buff Orpington is also a rather 
lieavy eater but will forage over a large area if forced to do so. They 
should not be allowed to get fat in hot weather. 

Black Minor cas — (Conclusions from two years breeding in writei-'s 
yards. One strain. Reports from fifteen Western Breeders. Experi- 
ments mostly in Idaho) — As winter layers, fair. Spring, summer and 
fall layers, good. Eggs hatch poorly unless breeders are given extra 
care. Growth to fry size, fair. Mature fairly early. Fatten fairly 
well and weigh fairly well for market birds but are rather hard to 
dress on account of the black feathers. Mature birds are fairly hardy 
but chicks must be given careful attention until nearly mature. Good 
rangers and foragers. Fairly gentle. Will stand confinement. Can 
be housed in fairly large numbers and cause the attendant very little 
trouble with broodiness. 

The Black Minorca is a great layer of large eggs and will lay a 
fairly large percentage of fertile eggs, but the strength of the germ 



16 The Western Poultry Guide 

and vitality of the chick can be improved. I would suggest introducing 
new blood from a known strain every two years at least and also 
giving the breeders a winter rest and plenty of greens and range 
where it is possible. Also, do not attempt to breed the Minorca to such 
Jarge size until you have the strength and vitality in the strain. In 
other words, do not look at size and shape before you have considered 
the hardiness and vitality of the birds you place in your breeding pens. 

FEED AND CARE. 

(Conclusions from twenty years of poultry experimenting and 
-observation). 

In the foregoing the writer has given a general idea of the different 
breed characteristics. Not on all varieties, but enough of them to give 
the beginner a good idea of how to select. We will now mention a few 
of those details of feed and care that will help to make the weak 
points in a breed stronger and the strong ones still stronger. 

Winter Eggs — Hatch the pullets early enough in the spring so they 
begin to lay before cold weather. House them warm but give plenty 
•of fresh air. The egg is formed and layed by circulation of blood. If 
you can keep the bird's body warm and the bird active the blood will 
circulate rapidly and you will get eggs. The birds that are to lay the 
winter eggs should be fed enough to fatten them a little. The thin, 
hungry bird will not keep warm enough to keep the blood in rapid 
circulation. If you can get the birds to fatten up and keep active and 
scratching at the same time, you will get winter eggs. Plenty of green 
feed in the form of alfalfa leaves, mangels, sprouted oats, etc., should 
be before the birds every day. Wheat and oats in the morning, one 
handful to each bird; bran mash at noon, one pint to five birds; wheat 
and corn at night, one handful to each bird. This is a fairly good 
standard ration. It can be varied according to market price of gi-ains, 
etc., but must never be fed without the addition of plenty of roughage 
or green feed as stated above. The oats may form one-third of the 
riiorning ration and the corn one-third of the evening ration, or we 
may use wheat alone for a few days, but always give some variety. 
The bran mash may be mixed, eight parts bran to one part meat 
meal or bean meal, or where skim milk is obtainable the meat will 
not be needed. A small amount of fresh meat or green bone once a 
week is permissible, but must be sparingly fed. 

Spring and Summer Eggs — Feed the same as for winter eggs but 
give more green feed and less grain. Give plenty of cool water, plenty 
of shade and see that the birds have a cool place to dust themselves 
in the loose soil so as to keep down lice. Spade up the ground on the 
shady side of the house, and wherever the birds lay in the heat of 
the day. 

Fall Eggs — These are often desirable in order to hatch winter 
broilers and to hatch fall chickens for the early spring mai'ket. Feed 



The Western Poultry Guide 17 

the same as for winter eggs. Allow the birds to brood for several 
weeks during the early spring and feed rather heavily during the early 
fall. This will cause a very early molt and those that have been 
broody and not laying during the spring will give a good yield in the 
fall. Do not allow them to get too fat or the eggs will not be as good 
for hatching and they will not lay as many. 

Hatchable Eggs — Keep the breeders active. Do not let the male 
i>:et too fat and heavy. Give grass, alfalfa or clover leaves, some form, 
of meat, if bugs and worms cannot be obtained by the birds, and do 
not force them for too many eggs at any one time. Do not allow the 
eggs to get cold as ice and stay that way for a long time before setting. 
Never set eggs that have been chilled by being in the nests when the 
weather is at or below the freezing point. Do not save eggs more than 
ten days. Do not set odd shaped, over-sized or under-sized eggs. 

Rapid Growth and Early Maturity — Feed the chicks the commercial 
chick feed the first three days. Then begin feeding a little bran mash 
in addition to the chick feed. Keep them warm but allow plenty of 
fresh air all the time in the brooders and brooder houses. Gradually 
increase the quantity of chick feed and mash until they go to the 
colony houses or coops, then feed the same ration as given for winter 
eggs. Do not be afraid of overfeeding chicks. Give them all they can 
eat of dry grain and all they will clean up in ten minutes of the mash. 
Allow free range on grass. Feed finely chopped grass or sprouts to 
the chicks in the brooders after the first day. Give all the green 
feed in the form of tender grass or sprouts they will eat. For early 
laying, house the pullets in their regular quarters at least a month 
before they are expected to lay. 

Fattening — Feed plenty of com and bran mash. Put chopped 
greens in the mash. Keep the birds closely confined and darken the 
coop so they will roost. Raise curtains and admit light when feeding. 
Feed four or five times a day. 

CONCLUSION. 

Select your breed and variety with the same care and study that 
you would use in selecting a farm or home or a business location. 

Study the market and place your product on sale at the time it 
will bring you the largest return on the investment. 

Feed and care for your birds in such a way that they will prcJuce 
at the time you want the product. 

Do not waste anything. Allow the birds to find all the free feed 
possible and introduce new blood every year if necessary to keep up 
the stamina and vigor of your flock. 



18 



The Western Poultry Guide 



CHAPTER III 



COMMERCIAL POULTRY RAISING IN THE 
NORTHWEST 

By Captain A. Waldwick, Tacoma, Washington, Breeder of White 
Leghorns, and Manufacturer of Fireless Brooders. 




O SUCCEED in profitably producing 

poultry and eggs for the markets, 

there are many things which are of 

great importance if the poultryman 

is to be successful in the highest sense 
of the word. The most important are: good 
location, low first cost, economy of operation, 
good stock, incubation, brooding, inexpensive 
but comfortable housing of the birds, proper 
feeding, cleanliness and care, convenient to a 
good market and shipping point, business abil- 
ity, honesty, willingness, and ability for any 
kind of work required. 

LOCATION. 

The best location is on a sandy loam, or Capt. A. Waldwick 
gravelly soil where natural drainage is 
obtained so there will be no pools of water 

standing near the poultry houses. It is also important that this soil 
is productive enough to raise green feed for all stock handled, and 
the plentiful supply the year around. Without green feed, real 
success is never obtained. 

It is of importance to be located near a shipping point so as to save 
time in bringing the produce from the farm to the station. It is of 
much less importance, if the market is some distance away, than to 
liave the shipping point several miles away from the farm. The loss 
of time in shipping is much more than the extra freight would be on 
a long distance shipment. If the best market is nearby, so much 
better. 

ECONOMY IN CONSTRUCTION AND OPERATION. 

The first cost in buildings and equipment should be carefully 
hoted. Many failures have resulted from too much money spent in 
the construction of too expensive houses and fixtures, also from 
impractical methods. Inconvenience in operation has also caused the 
downfall of many. 

A poultry house may be built very cheaply and at the same time 
lie comfortable for the birds the year around. A house fourteen by 



The Western Poultry Guide 



IS* 



fourteen is ample room for fifty layers, and will be most economically 
constructed by using the shed roof style. The back should be five: 
feet six inches from sill to plate; the front, seven feet 6 inches. This- 
will give ample slope to the roof for the water to run off, if paper" 
is used. If shingled, the front should be at least two feet higher.. 
The shed roof style is by far the cheapest and easiest to construct, 
and the beginner should look as much to the first cost as to anything 
else. It should, however, be borne in mind that cheapness should not 
be the only reason for doing anything. Practicability, convenience 
in doing the every-day work, coupled with comfort of the birds, winter' 
and summer, should be the guides for constructing the poultry house.. 
A house as formerly described, with open front, about four by 
five feet for every fourteen feet of house front, answers the purpose 
better than anything known at the present time. This open front side 
should face away from the prevailing winds, always. In the Puget. 
Sound Country and all along the Pacific Coast, and for some distance- 
inland, this wind is from the southeast, to west, and southwest. The 
prevailing wind during the rainy and stormy season of the year is: 
from the southwest. The house, therefore, if facing due east, will 
afford protection from the elements on the east side (the open front). 
It will be found that even in very stormy weather the house will be 
comfortable inside with wire fronts all open. 




Interior of Waldwick's Incubator House — Turning the Eggs. 



20 The Western Poultry Guide 

Some protection should be provided for the open fronts to be used 
at night in very cold and stormy weather. Some use burlap curtains, 
others muslin. There is considerable difficulty in operating these 
curtains, and much time is spent unnecessarily in adjusting them. 
The best and most satisfactory w^ay is to have board shutters, two 
for each opening, hinged one on each side of the opening. On very 
■cold nights the two may be closed. On very stormy nights, with a 
moderate temperature, one shutter on each opening may be closed if 
it is considered best for the health of the birds. With shutters 
properly arranged very little time is required in opening and closing. 
It can be done about as fast as one can walk past the openings. 
This method is inexpensive, durable and the wost economical of 
operation, of any manner of handling the open front problem that 
we know of. 

In addition to the board doors at the ends, there should be a door 
ma<ie from wire netting to admit more ventilation on warm days. 

Besides facing away from the prevailing winds, there are other 
advantages in facing the laying house east. One is that in the winter 
when we have an occasional cold spell we get the sun's rays early in 
the morning, directly on the entire front, and through the open fronts 
directly into the house. An hour or two of sunshine, direct into the 
house on a .cold morning, does an immense amount of good, as it is 
generally the coldest of the twenty-four hours. It warms up the 
interior of the house, makes the birds sing, and they enjoy basking 
in the sunshine and dusting in the fresh, clean earth — if an earth 
floor — and there should never be any other kind in a poultry house, 
but it should be filled in or raised at least six inches above the outside 
ground, so as to make it dry at all seasons of the year. Houses with 
earth floors have been found by experiment stations to be warmer 
and more practical than board or cement floors. 

GOOD STOCK. 

Good stock is as important as its housing. It is not necessary 
for the market egg producer to start with premium winners at the 
shows. What is needed is strong, hardy birds that have been selected 
for their egg-laying qualities, rather than their markings as fancy 
birds, for on their ability to produce eggs, depends mainly the success 
or failure of their owner. He must have birds that have been well 
hatched and raised, otherwise they will not possess the vigor and 
vitality necessary for heavy egg production, no difference if the parent 
stock is of the very best producers. 

FEEDING. 

Proper and systematic feeding should always be practiced for 
growing stock, layers and those to be sent to market. No "slip shod" 
methods will do. For the layers and growing stock after they are 
about a month old, a dry mash may be kept before them in hoppers 



TJ>e Western Poultry Guide 



21 



all the time, also beef scraps and protein meal equal parts, — also 
shells. Grain may be fed only once each day, in the evening before 
gathering the eggs, but in that case a moist mash should be fed in 
the morning. Feed a variety for all stock. To produce eggs in large 
quantities in winter, feed in deep litter three times a day. Feed oats 
steeped at least twenty-four hours. It is a great egg producer, and 
Incubation has been somewhat difficult until late years. There 




Interior of Waldwick's Incubator House — Testing Out the Eggs. 

if prices are running high gives as good returns for the money as 
costlier grains. 

INCUBATION. 

are now many excellent incubators on the market. The beginner will 
do best by following strictly the directions of the different makes. 

Heat, ventilation and moisture properly balanced are the essentials 
for a good hatch, and when those are properly adjusted, good hatches 
will always be the result. 

BROODING. 

The most difficult part of the poultry raising business — for some 
people — seems to be the brooding or raising the chicks. If space 
v/ould permit I could write a very long chapter on this subject alone, 
r will merely say that the best and largest percentage of good strong 



'/.l The Western Poidtry Guide 

chicks is raised the most economically both for fuel, time and labor, 
in lampless, or fireless brooders, in a house heated to anywhere from 
SO to 70 degrees during the day. The cheapest kind of wood obtainable 
may be used. It eliminates the cost of oil and attending to oil lamps. 
It allows the poultry raiser to retire for the night and secure a sound 
rest after a long day's work. He need have no fear of fire, as there 
need be none at night. It enables him to weed out all weak chicks 
as they are brooded in lots of 100 or less, and this advantage alone 
is of great importance, for on chicks, while small, depends the future 
money-maker as a breeder. When broodjng chicks in flocks of 1,000 
to 1500 (room brooding method) this weeding out of the weaker ones 
is an impossibility, as the space is too large, which makes it difficult 
to observe the individual bird. 

I have brooded chicks in fireless brooders exclusively for the last 
five years, and am thoroughly convinced from what I have noted this 
year that there is no method equal to it in any way whatever. Gi'eat 
claims have been made for other methods, but unfortunately for those 
who have tried them, they have come very far below expectations. 

The individual lamp brooder is the thing for those raising a few 
chicks, for those i*aising chicks in large numbers, the indoor lampless 
will prove the best and most economical. 

With proper arrangement of brooders, one person can comfortably 
take care of 5,000 chicks. Half this number would be about the limit 
with any other method of brooding. 

CLEANLINESS. 

Cleanliness should always be observed. There has never been any- 
thing that has done more to put the otherwise successful poultry 
raiser out of business than neglect in keeping houses, goods and 
premises clean. An ever watchful eye for vermin is needed, and even 
if none are seen, spray and clean regularly just the same — remember 
-.the value of prevention. 

RELIABILITY. 

It is necessary to be convenient to a good market so one can call 
■occasionally on the customer and thus become better acquainted, and 
if good goods have been shipped, the top prices may always be 
obtained. By coming in contact with the customer, the shipper will, 
if practicing the "square deal," produce that confidence and feeling 
of reliability so desirable between buyer and seller. It also gives the 
f hipper a chance to learn if he is getting a "square deal." If he is not, 
he should drop the customer. There are always others to be found. 
When a reliable customer is found, do your utmost to give satisfaction, 
without giving anything away, for eggs of the best grade always 
command the top prices, and the honest shipper has no difficulty in 
obtaining them. 



The Western Poultry Guide 



23 




Waldvnck and His Auto Delivery. 



WHO SHOULD ENGAGE IN THE BUSINESS. 



It used to be that poultry raising was looked upon as only fit for 
the "wimmen" folks, or as an occupation for some old decrepit person 
and even invalids, also regarded as something that any one could make 
a success at, even if he had failed at everything else he had tried. I 
v/ant to tell you most emphatically that never was anything more 
incorrect. To succeed, there must be first a willingness to work; 
second, ability for business, as well as for any kind of work that 
comes along, from digging a ditch to running an incubator. Personal 
manual labor is not absolutely necessary to be done if the owner has 
the means and feels inclined to hire the work done. Neither is it 
necessary to do any work, if he has plenty of money and has the 
experience. In that case the experience will be worth much more 
than the labor hired. But for* the beginner, with small means, and 
perhaps less experience, I will say, be prepared to do the work 
yourself, until you have gained sufficient knowledge of the business 
to know when you are right or wrong. When you know you are 
right and have the means, then go ahead and let nothing stop you. 
Push ahead to the limit and you will in time be reaping a continual 
harvest. The beginner will do best by adopting the methods of somo 



24 The Western Poultry Guide 

one who has made a success and follow them step by step as he goe? 
along, or he may adopt a combination of several successful men's 
methods, but usually that does not work as well as sticking closely to 
one man's ideas. Much time, money, and worry may be saved by 
£0 doing. 

DOES IT PAY? 

Some prospective poultry raisers seem more interested in "what 
are the profits" rather than the expense. I will here give a short 
outline of both. 

Land, houses, stock and equipment for an egg farm will be about 
?3 per hen. This will vary according to the price of the land, als6 
the number of hens kept, for the larger the number of birds, the less 
will be the average cost per fowl. 

Feed for a layer per year, $1.50; 12 dozen eggs at an average of 
30 cents, $3.60; balance for labor, interest, etc., $2.10. 

The above is a low average for the number of eggs laid if good 
stock is kept, also a low average price on eggs, especially if one 
manages to get many winter eggs, which is not difficult with proper 
housing, feed and care. It has been my experience to take in more 
money for market eggs during the winter than in the spring and 
summer. My eggs have averaged from 36 cents to 41 cents per 
dozen for the last six years. 

Will the poultry business be overdone? Not so long as the people 
of this country continue to eat eggs. I remember about two years 
ago I read in an Eastern farm journal, that the way large poultry 
farms wei-e starting up in certain sections of the country, there would 
in a few years be so many chickens that one could not sell either 
chickens or eggs. How that prophesy has worked out we all know. 
It is a sure thing. The poultry business is at a higher standard than 
ever before, and I predict that it will continue to grow. Of course 
there are, and always will be, those who never can make it pay. To 
the intelligent, painstaking person, who practices common-sense 
methods, who is willing to give as much time and attention to the 
management and care of his poultry as he would necessarily be com- 
pelled to do to any other business he may be engaged in, will find 
that for the same amount of money, the same energy, time and labor 
spent, he will receive larger returns, and be more independent than 
he would in any other business or line of endeavor. To reach this 
point, however, there must be time for learning how, and knowing 
how, permitting of no leaks, no escaped steam, in short, no ivaste. 

The Pacific Northwest offers exceptionally good opportunities 
for the egg farmer. Building material is the cheapest here of any 
place on the coast. Feed is as low as elsewhere, but the most im- 
portant fact lies in the markets, for they are the be^t of any part of 
the country. 



The Western Poultry Guide 



25 



CHAPTER IV 



PROGRESSIVE POULTRY CULTURE— SOMETHING 
ABOUT POULTRY HOUSES AND FEEDING 

By J. H. Davis, Dinuba, California, Thirty Years a Poultryman 
and Writer. 





J. H. Davis 



HE world moves apace. 
The fashions of today 
are the follies of to- 
morrow. It is not far 
to tallow candles and 
stage coaches. Not so far back. 
Today the tallow candles are 
superseded by kerosene, gas and 
electricity. The stage coaches 
of yesterday are superseded by 
the palace cars of the present. 

We travel fast. Fifty years 
ago poultry culture scarcely had 
a name. Then came the new 
breeds of fowls from over the 
seas and Americans began mak- 
ing new breeds themselves, and 

with the advent of the breeds of fancy feathers have come all sorts of 
poultry appliances and inventions, including incubators, brooders and 
so on, until now, we have the big hatcheries which turn out day-old 
chicks "while you wait." I could go on and write chapters on the 
beginning, progress and present of poultry culture, but as this book 
is an educational one, I shall waste no time in "glittering generalities," 
but begin at once on the task assigned me. 

Poultry house construction depends much on climate, but I am an 
advocate of the open front house for any climate. In the North 
where the winters are cold, a heavy curtain can be let down over the 
open front when occasion requires. In climates like California, and 
much of Oregon, Western Washington, and in all the Southern States, 
the entire open front is the thing, and curtains will only be required 
in some sections where heavy wind storms with rain are periodical 
annoyances. 

The poultry house should be built as plain as possible, even with 
people having plenty of money, there is no use for elaborate displays 
of cornices, windows and other ornaments which cost money, do no 
good and which harbor insects. In building a house or houses, the 



136 The Western Poultry Guide 

builder must decide on the size he needs. I can't do that for him, but 
I can give him some pointers. 

The average poultry house should be twelve feet deep, six feet 
high in front and five feet at the rear. It should have a shed roof, 
because it is cheaper than shingles, yet the shingle roof may be put 
on by those who prefer it. The roof should be absolutely unleakable 
and the back of the house and three sides should be tight. Thus, while 
the house is filled with fresh air all the time, there can be no 
draughts. A fowl in the tree is not exposed to draughts, but a fowl 
in a house where there are holes and cracks is exposed to draughts. 
If you raise your window a few inches and allow the wind to blow on 
you from a door and through the window, you will likely wake up 
in the morning with a sore throat and a catarrhal affection of the 
head. Just so with fowls — those exposed to draughts get a cold in 
the head, then catarrh, and then roup — after which, the bone yard. 

The chicken house should have as few contraptions inside as 
possible, and everything therein should be movable. The roosts should 
be laid on trestles so that these can be taken out in the yard, painted 
over with kerosene and set on fire, when all insect life will be 
destroyed as well as the eggs. Nest boxes and all should be movable 
and should receive the same treatment when it comes to a "clean-up." 
Thus, you see, there is nothing in the house but the bare walls, and 
where there are only bare walls you can go over them with a torch 
and destroy every living thing. Care must be taken that there is no 
straw about, or anything to burn the house. The careful man will 
succeed with the torch; the careless man may have a conflagration, 
but there is no risk whatever if these directions are followed. 

Now about nests; there are various methods of building them. 
They may be put in the house proper; they may be on the outside, on 
a small platform, or shelf just wide enough for the nest boxes, which 
should have covers on them — then the eggs may be gathered from the 
outside — or a partition of wire might be run through the house, leaving 
an alleyway, at the back, of three or four feet, so that the eggs could 
be gathered inside the house while the nest boxes would not be in the 
roosting quarters. A door at the end of the house would be necessary 
to get into this sort of a hall-way; this is handy in rainy weather. It 
is also good in the case of setting hens, as the nest boxes may be 
drawn into the alley-way, but in case the nests are constructed this 
way, there can be no going over the inside of the house with a lighted 
torch. With the nests completely on the outside on a platform, all 
danger from a torch is obviated. 

Where a person keeps a large number of fowls the house should be 
made in accordance therewith as regards length, and while some 
keep several hundred in one flock, my experience is that for best 
results, fowls should be put in flocks of fifty and not more than one 
hundred. If a thousand fowls are kept, the poultry house may be 



The Western Poultry Guide 27 

made of the above dimensions as to height and width, when it can be 
made as long as necessary with wire partitions, the rooms being 
fifteen feet wide for one hundred fowls and eight feet wide for fifty 
fowls. Thus, with a thousand fowls divided into flocks of one hundred 
each, ten runs would be required — divided into flocks of fifty, twenty 
runs would be necessary. 

The length of the runs are left to the option of the breeder, who 
may make them longer or shorter as he elects. He may have double 
yards for each flock, where green feed may be kept growing in one 
of the yards all the time, but this cannot be done unless water is at 
hand all the time. The breeder must be where he may obtain city 
water, and with the use of a hose, wet the growing vegetation, or he 
must have a windmill or some means of irrigation where the water 
supply is permanent. If he does not have a double yard, he must 
have an acre or two on which green stuff must be kept growing the 
year 'round for the fowls, otherwise the egg supply will be shorter, as 
it is impossible to get a full supply of eggs unless the fowls have 
plenty of green feed. This green feed should be cabbage, kale, lettuce, 
Swiss chard, mustard and so on. The greater the variety the bettter 
for the birds. 

There are no definite rules about poultry houses. I am of the 
opinion that breeders, as a rule, have intelligence enough to build 
their houses according to the size of their flock, the length of their 
purses and as convenient as possible. I repeat that different climates 
and different locations in the same climate, especially where climate 
depends altogether on topography, as on this coast, require different 
construction and different facing, either to the north, south, east or 
v/est, as the case may be. The house built so that the sun may shine 
in it a portion of the day is the healthiest for the fowls, just as living 
rooms where the sun can shine the most is the healthiest for a family. 

A poultry house should never be built in a clump of trees or in a 
shaded place. It is all right to have shade for fowls, but that shade 
should be away from the house entirely and this applies to dwelling 
houses as well as chicken houses. There is nothing so bleak and 
gloomy as a dwelling hid in perpetual shade, and it is just so with 
poultry houses. 

There are colony houses which are scattered over a field and 
moved when occasion demands — one of the best places for colony 
bouses is along a corn field. The corn furnishes shade for the birds, 
and they have the run of the field to pick up hoppers, bugs, worms 
and various insects. Colony houses are cheap things and can be 
built by anyone. Then, there are houses for the setting hens, brooder 
iiouses and so on, that cannot be described in a brief article like this, 
as it would take a book larger than this to describe the various kinds 
of houses and appliances. The main object of this chapter is to impress 
on the minds of beginners the necessity of having the poultry house 



28 The Western Poultry Guide 

plain and modest, so that it can be readily cleaned and kept free frorrr 
mites, ticks and other insects. 

In this progressive age, poultry culture is progressive. It must 
be. The old time fowls used to roost on trees, on the fences, on the 
stalls in the stable, on the buggy, on the harness and in every con- 
ceivable place; some are allowed to do this today, where the slouchy 
poultry keeping exists. But the rule is, good chicken houses, kept well 
cleaned and free from insects. There are a number of books devoted 
entirely to poultry architecture — I have several, but have never had 
use for any of them, as they give plans too elaborate. In this century 
we have evolved from the elaborate poultry house to the plain, common- 
sense house, which is cheap and which can and must be kept clean, 
because an unclean house, full of mites and ticks and flees, cuts down, 
the egg yield and reduces the vitality of the birds. 

Progressive poultry culture has given us the open front house, 
which doesn't need any windows, and which has reduced afflictions 
among fowls fully eighty per cent. With the old, tight houses, in 
some instances supplied with fire in the winter, the mortality among 
fowls was heavy and many breeders had a room used as a hospital for 
sick birds. This has been done away with entirely and afflicted 
fowls are few as a result. In fact, there is no possible excuse now 
for diseased fowls and any such are the result of wrong housing,, 
roosting and careless attention. With no mites, lice, or other insects 
to trouble the fowls, and right feeding, there will be no diseases among 
fowls. Cause produces effect, and when the cause is removed there 
will be no ailing fowls. This, the open front poultry houses have 
largely solved, in this age of progressive poultry culture. 

FEEDING FOWLS. 

There are all sorts of theories about feeding. Books and books 
have been written on feeding. Some of them are too voluminous and 
complicated and too "scientific" to be of any real value to anybody, 
especially amateurs. A breeder does not have to be a chemist to 
feed fowls, yet, some of these writers on feeding mix up the feed so 
thoroughly with chemistry that a person, to understand them, would 
have to understand chemistry. 

Feeding may be divided into several sections, as follows: Feeding 
chicks; feeding grown fowls; feeding for eggs; dry feeding; wet or 
mash feeding; hopper feeding; feeding to fatten for market; balanced 
rations. 

In feeding chicks I give only bread crumbs for the first three 
days, corn bread and whole wheat bread. Then I begin to feed pin- 
head oatmeal (called steel cut oats), fine cracked corn, cracked 
wheat and plenty of lettuce. Chicks will begin to eat lettuce when 
but a few days old. This I tie with a string (the heads) so the chicks 
can pick at it. It is surprising the amount of lettuce they will, 
consume. This is my main feed for chicks until they are a month 



The Western Poultry Guide 29 

old, and can eat whole wheat and larger cracked corn, and with 
wheat, cracked and whole, cracked corn, occasionally sprouted oats and 
some fish meat meal, with an occasional loaf of corn bread and table 
scraps, I rear the chicks to maturity. In hoppers, hung on the chicken 
house wall, I have bran, shorts, charcoal and fish meat meal mixed in 
one apartment and grit in another apartment, also charcoal. Oc- 
casionally I give the chicks a feed of cornmeal, mixed so as to be 
just crumbly with milk or water. Sometimes I make a mash of bran, 
shorts, meat meal, and a little alfalfa meal, but all the time they are 
supplied with lettuce, swiss chard, cabbage, Chinese mustard, and so 
on, in rotation. I never feed any of the feeds of commerce, sold by 
■dealers, already mixed, but mix my own feeds, and know just what I 
am feeding. This is about the extent of my chick feeding and I have 
the healthiest of chicks; no ailments of any kind. Chicks love boiled 
potatoes, and any kind of cooked vegetables; and so do old fowls, but 
the main thing is to keep the birds absolutely free from mites, lice, 
ticks, flees, and other insect pests. Feeding is very simple, as any 
farmer's wife will tell you. 

In feeding grown fowls I follow the same feeding nearly as for 
chicks. Wheat, cracked corn, sprouted oats, with a feed of cooked 
barley at least twice a week; but wheat, oats and corn are my main 
feeds; these are the stand-bys. The mashes are made the same as 
described above for the chicks. The composition of the mashes are 
as follows: Cornmeal, oatmeal, bran, middlings, or shorts, equal parts; 
alfalfa meal, enough to color the mash slightly green; fish meat meal, 
one quart to each gallon of mash. Mix so as to be crumbly, with 
water, or milk, sweet or sour. The fowls have dry mash all the time 
in hoppers, same as the chicks. The fowls have all the green feed 
they want, and an occasional feed of green cut bone, which I get at 
the butchers at three cents per pound. 

I never feed for eggs. There is more nonsense written about 
"feeding for eggs" than any other phase of poultry culture. In the 
laying season I feed heavily because fowls which are laying heavily 
need to be fed well, and I want to accentuate the fact, and I want 
beginners to remember it, that when fowls have layed right along for 
months they need a rest, and do take a rest to get on a new coat of 
feathers. During this time if the breeder stimulates his fowls with 
drugs or any feed warranted to make them lay, he does so at the risk 
of ruining his birds physically and reducing their vigor so that they 
soon become unprofitable and have to be replaced by other stock. 
There is nothing at all in "feeding for eggs;" and fowls which are 
fed stimulants to force them to lay, will not lay fertile eggs; or, if 
they be fertile, the germs are weak, and the chicks die not long after 
being hatched. This will account for so many chicks dying after 
being shipped from hatcheries. The fowls had been stimulated to 
force them to lay more eggs, if possible, and these eggs sent to the 
hatcheries produce weaklings. I have had a score of letters from 



so The Western Poultry Guide 

people who had purchased chicks from the hatcheries, saying that the 
most of their chicks had died. One man said he purchased 200 chicks, 
and that 120 had died. This is not against the hatcheries, which I 
think are a good thing and needed. There are plenty of feeds which 
are stimulating and may be fed when required. 

I have already described mash feeding, dry and wet. Breeders 
can vary the mash to suit themselves, and breeders should experiment 
in feeding, as that is the only way we can learn. Practice goes a long 
way toward perfection. All the breeder is after is "good results," and 
when he gets good results he is successful, no matter what plan of 
feeding he adopts. 

Fattening fowls does not come under the head of "feeding" but is 
a different division of feeding. It is quite easy to fatten fowls by 
keeping them in close confinement and feeding them fattening feeds, 
and withholding green feed. Indian com is the chief agent in the 
process and may be fed in meal, cracked or whole, as the breeder 
pleases. 

I could draw this feeding advice out into pages and pages, but I 
have some regard for the intelligence of those who read this book. I 
have given you my plan of feeding. If you are successful, you are 
on the right road. Do not change your method to adopt some other 
method. Let well enough alone. Still, as I say, it is all right to 
experiment, yet it is sound sense, as well as economy, to stick fast to 
a good thing. 

There is much talk about "balanced" rations. You can't balance the 
ration unless it be in a wet mash. Fowls will unbalance any ration 
you may make. They do it every time. Mix a ration and watch the 
birds, and you will watch them pick out the ingredients or grains 
they like best, and will throw the rest out of the feed trough to be 
trodden under foot. It is almost impossible to make fowls eat all 
you fix for them in the so-called "balanced" rations, unless it be 
cooked together in such a way that the birds must eat the whole or 
none. I have watched my birds do this many times. Fowls know 
what they want to eat. How would you, reader, like to sit at a table 
and be forced to eat of all the food on it, and of things, perhaps, which 
you particularly disliked? Fowls have likes and dislikes. I have 
never been able to make my fowls eat alfalfa meal, no difference how 
nicely I fixed it up. In mashes, the birds pick out the other ingredients 
and leave the alfalfa. 

I give here a good ration for a mash which may be fed wet or dry: 
Seven pounds of cornmeal; five pounds wheat middlings; four pounds 
wheat bran; two pounds cut alfalfa or one pound of alfalfa meal; 
three pounds of beef scrap or fish meat meal; six ounces of charcoal; 
five pounds of steel cut oats. 

There are feeds and feeds, formulas and formulas; but the be- 
ginner, for whose benefit I am writing, will find the above formula 



The Western Poultry Guide 31 

as good as the best, and with the other advice contained in this chapter 
the amateur will be able to feed for best results, and that is all that 
is necessary. Too much, too voluminous, instruction confuses. A 
little plain talk, a few plain directions devoid of perplexing terms about 
"ash," "protein," "carbohydrates," "fat," and so on, will not make a 
good chicken feeder out of an amateur. He is apt to think, and 
rightly, that he will have to study chemistry in order to know how 
to feed fowls, and he will feel like giving the thing up if such is the 
case. Our grandmothers and grandfathers who raised many fowls 
and good fowls, knew nothing about these chemical feeding termsy 
and if you notice the farmer's wife and daughters, who are the ones 
who raise the fowls on the farms, they never take a thought about 
protein, carbohydrates, and so on, but just feed good, sound grain, 
plenty of milk, some corn bread occasionally, and the fowls grow 
splendidly and the old birds shell out the eggs satisfactorily. This is 
common sense in the poultry yard. My experience in feeding chicks 
is that dry feeding is best. Dry feed will never sour, and the chicks 
will never eat more than they want of it. From the time they are 
a week old, I cut onions up very fine and give the chicks a good feed 
three times a week. As a consequence, I never have any ailments 
among my flocks, never have colds, catarrh, diarrhoea, worms or 
anything of that nature. I am of the opinion that the onions ward 
off afflictions. 

The amateur will soon leam to feed intelligently, because right 
feeding is very simple, and I want to expressly warn beginners to 
beware of drugs, stimulants, tonics, stuff warranted "to make hens 
lay," stuff guaranteed to make "chicks grow and keep them healthy," 
and so on. Fowls and chicks never need anything but just good feed. 
If a bird gets ailing, isolate it from the rest of the flock, and change 
its feed, giving milk, boiled rice, cooked oatmeal, whole wheat bread 
or corn bread and milk, and in nine cases out of ten the bird will 
recover. I have tried it time and again, and know it's the only way. 
If any one who reads this wants any further information, I will be 
glad to answer any letters directed to me personally. 



.{12 



The Western Poultry Guide 



CHAPTER V 



INCUBATION 

By H. F. Rau, Tacoma, Washington, the "Quality Chickman," Breeder 
of White Leghorns and Rhode Island Reds. 





H. F. Ran 



jBOUT thirty years ago 
I decided to try arti- 
ficial' incubation, and 
built my first incu- 
bator; it is needless to 
say that it was not a success. 
Never having seen an incubator, 
I had to figure out the princi- 
ples myself, and my first hatch 
was one chick from one hundred 
and sixty-six eggs. This did 
not discourage me and I began 
experimenting to improve this 
machine or build one that would 
Tiatch a reasonable amount of 
the eggs set. 

During the past thirty years 
I have built and operated a good many different kinds of machines, 
besides the various kinds I bought and run. This wide experience 
has given me knowledge that can be gained in no other way. One 
may buy an incubator, follow instructions, and get a fair hatch, but 
they never know the "why" of the results. They only know they did 
as they were told and secured a good hatch. Such work does not 
leach a person the real system of incubation, one must start at the 
beginning and leam the effect of heat, ventilation and moisture on 
i;he eggs and they will then know why such results were obtained. 

TEMPERATURE VERY IMPORTANT. 

An incubator, to give good results, must have complete control of 
the temperature and it must be even in all parts of the eg^ chamber, 
on same level, or on a level with the eggs, so that when you read the 
thermometer you know that is the temperature of all the eggs. Fluctu- 
ation of the temperature of one degree will do no harm, but this 
should be equal with all eggs. A change from 98 to 105 degrees or 
over is harmful and should not occur very often if a good hatch is 
-wanted. 



The Western Poultry Guide 



33 



High temperature is far more harmful than low. I would much 
rather find the temperature of my incubator at 98 than at 105. The 
correct temperature is a question, because the different makes of 
machines require different temperatures to obtain the best results. 
Some machines will give the best hatch at 103 degrees, others at 102. 
This, I think, is on account of the variation of the degree of heat be- 
tween top and bottom of the eggs. A machine that is lightly constructed 
will have a greater variation of temperature from top to bottom of the 
eggs than one of better construction — also the manner in which the 
heat is applied will have some effect on this. On account of this 
variation, a different degree of heat is required at the top of the 
eggs to get the correct average of heat to the eggs. 

We use a well constructed machine and find a temperature of 101 
the first week, or rather four or five days, then IOIV2 for a week; 102 
up to a few days before hatching, and 102 Vi; and 103 during hatching 
will give the best results. Many differ as to the proper temperature 
to get the best results at hatching time. Up to this season we did not 
think as we do now, and we came to the conclusion only after a 
season's experience, when we had an opportunity to get tests that 
found this to be a fact. 

The past season we operated several large machines that held 
1600 eggs each, and these machines had four compartments each. 
These compartments, at hatching time, would vary in degree of 
temperature from 101 to 105, and over at times. We found that a 
temperature of 102^- and 103 gave the best hatches in number and 
quality of chicks. We have even received good results at 101, but not 
good at 105 or over. 

These machines run fine and are well built, using less than one 
quart of oil for twenty-four hours, during early part of the hatch and 
less than a pint per day, near hatching time. The temperature runs 
very even — we could hold it just as we wanted it up to hatching time, 
and then it would vary some on account of the heat being thrown off 
from the eggs, varying in the different sections. We did not try to 
prevent this until we were satisfied which gave u* the best results. 




Results of good incubation; 1240 
chicks from 1500 eggs 






Another good hatch 



34 The Western Poultry Guide 

and after our season's work we have arrived at the following: Start 
the eggs at 101 degrees, run them for four or five days at this 
temperature, run the temperature up to 102 and maintain this up to 
the seventeenth or eighteenth day, then run it at 102 1/2 to 103, until 
the hatch is finished. This is the temperature that will give you the 
best results, if you have a well constructed incubator, if not, then 
run a half degree higher or even one degree in extreme cases. 

VENTILATION SECOND IN IMPORTANCE. 

Ventilation has caused more loss, worry and trouble than any one 
feature of artificial incubation, and yet, it is second in importance in 
securing good results. 

The reason for this is that it is possible to get good results by 
using several different systems of ventilation — systems that are 
directly opposite, also by using no ventilation at all. I must admit 
that I never secured good results with the "no ventilation" system, 
yet some claim the solution of incubation is no ventilation. The 
argument that no air passes through eggs in a hen's nest is no 
argument at all, for when the hen leaves the nest, the eggs and air 
surrounding them are warm. It rises from the eggs and the cold 
air outside of the nest will fall in the nest to take the place of this 
warm air that raises from the nest. This action is equal to air 
passing down through the eggs in the incubator and the results are 
the same. 

We have experimented with various kinds of ventilation systems, 
namely, top, bottom and side ventilation, using air brought into the 
machine from a heater, passing out of the machine at the bottom, 
through holes or cracks in the bottom; also out through ventilating 
tubes, taking the air off the bottom, after passing down through the 
eggs. We have taken this air off through side ventilation, on a level 
with the top of the eggs, also out above the eggs and have used a 
ventilation system, where the air enters the machine at the bottom 
and goes out at the top; also where all outlets and entrances were in 
the bottom, and with all the different systems, the results are about 
the same. The one real issue is to apply the system properly. We 
rather favor bottom ventilation; it is the more simple of all and is as 
satisfactory as any. 

The cry about retaining the carbonic acid gas in the machine is 
not as necessary as some would have us believe. We find the carbonic 
acid gas, as it passes through the shell from the eggs, decomposes the 
shell sufficiently to allow the chick to break through. 

We must consider airing the eggs with ventilation. Airing the 
eggs is important — ^the expansion and contraction of the egg helps to 
break down the shell particles so that the shell, at hatching time, is 
very tender and breaks very easily. The amount of airing that we 
have found to give good results is to air only while turning, for the 
first week. The second week, air ten to fifteen minutes, depending 



The Western Poultry Guide 35 

upon the outside temperature. The third week, fifteen to twenty-five 
minutes. The size of the air cell has but little to do with a hatch. We 
have had good hatches when the air cell occupied one-fourth to one- 
fifth of the eggs, and just as good when the air cell was not larger 
than a five-cent piece. 

By keeping tab on the air cell, one can see if the eggs are drying 
down too fast; if they are, i-educe the heat, ventilation and airing; 
if they are not drying down to suit you, increase this. We find 
better results can be obtained by not drying the eggs down too much, 
and then at hatching time, no other moisture will be required. 

MOISTURE OF LITTLE IMPORTANCE. 

If heat and ventilation is right, the moisture problem is solved, 
but when they are wrong, then some arrangement must be made to 
handle the moisture problem. I would much rather run an incubator 
that does not require moisture applied than one that is not perfectly 
adjusted. There are moisture cranks who try to build or run an 
mcubator to see how much moisture they can use and yet secure fair 
hatches, claiming that this is proof that applied moisture is necessary 
to get a good hatch. I claim an incubator that requires moisture 
applied during the hatch is not right in heat and ventilation. 

The old hen does not use moisture, nature has provided for this 
in the eggs, in fact, there is more water in the eggs than is required — 
some must be evaporated, but we don't want to dry down the eggs too 
much, so some machines must use applied moisture to prevent this. 

The air in the machine at the time the hatch is about half over- 
should be well saturated with moisture to prevent the chicks that are^ 
late coming out drying up and sticking to the shell. If the tempera- 
ture was high any time during the hatch — the liquid substance sur- 
rounding the chick in the shell will be sticky and if the air is not real 
moist they will stick in the shell. An over-amount of moisture at 
thatching time is detrimental, inasmuch that the chicks will smother 
or drown in the heavy moisture ladened air. We have had this to 
liappen by holding too much moisture in the machine while hatching. 
This is not liable to occur in small machines, but it is in large ones. 

Less moisture need be applied during warm weather than cold, 
for less air passes through the machine, and the warm air entering 
the machine carries more moisture than cooler air, during cold weather. 
The results show that with the same ventilation, eggs will dry down 
more in cold weather than warm. This must be taken into considera- 
tion during incubation. 

TURNING THE EGGS. 

We set our machines at night and set the flame of the lamp so the 
heat will be less than 106 in the morning, then we have all day to 
get the temperature settled down to 101 degrees before night. At the 
end of twenty-four hours we change trays in the machine, then every 
twelve hours until forty eight or sixty hours, when we turn the eggs : 



36 The Western Poultry Guide 

iox the first time, doing it as quickly as possible without rough 
-handling. After this we turn the eggs every twelve hours until the 
«nd of the eighteenth day. 

We do not open the machine until the hatch is over. Our experi- 
ence with machines we have purchased convinces us that some manu- 
facturers do not understand their own machines, sending out instruc- 
tions for operating them that are not right, and fail to give good 
^•esults, yet when the machine is run as it should be, it would give 
satisfactory hatches. 

Many of the so-called improvements on incubators are more for 
advertising than real work. We have found that incubation is a very 
simple operation and the machine that is simple, with no unnecessary 
ventilation and valves for controlling ventilation and moisture is the 
machine to buy. There is too much fuss made of incubation — it is 
simply giving correct heat, air enough to furnish oxygen to the 
growing germ and the problem is solved. 

THE LAMP. 

The bowl should be well made and large enough to hold two days' 
supply. Use good oil and you will only be required to fill and clean 
the lamp every other day, this reduce", labor one-half. Use good 
wicks and a new one every other hatch It is also well to empty the 
lamp bowl some times to clean out the water and dirt that collects 
in the bowl. If you use a trip-burner, be sure to clean well every 
time you fill the lamp, and see that the sleeve works freely, to prevent 
trouble by sticking. Adjust the flame right, do not run it too high 
so the sleeve will be above the tube very much — if so, it will heat and 
gasify the oil and cause the flame to flutter, and further trouble. 



The Western Poultry Guide a'? 

CHAPTER VI 




ROOM BROODING AND THE BEST WAY TO 
START IN THE POULTRY BUSINESS 

By D. Tancred, Kent, Wash., Breeder Trap-nested White Leqhorns 

]MAN who takes up poultry raising with the intent of making: 
his living by it, and who expects to get his business on a. 
fairly paying basis within a reasonable time, and with the? 
investment of a moderate amount of capital, should begirt 
with the day-old chicks and with as many as he can properly 
care for in the growing stage, and afterward when they have matured' 
as layers. Heretofore the stumbling block m this business has been- 
the brooding of the chicks. Incubation, as a separate division of the 
business, pays after the necessary knowledge of the process has beeib 
obtained by experience, and with the modern houses and equipment one 
man could properly care for a sufficient number of layers to net him.< 
a very good profit. 

But raising the chicks! That was the rub. Brooders — whether of 
the lamp, hot water pipe, or fireless type — were a great improvement 
over the natural hen mother and it was possible to rear chicks in large 
numbers by their use; but the best possible results by those means didf 
not adequately repay the value of the labor involved in operating them. 
By the use of incubators or the large hatchers a man could hatch tert 
times as many chicks as he could care for in individual brooders and 
this was too great a disproportion altogether. And a great dispropor- 
tion existed between the number of layers that he could care for and 
the number that he could raise by any brooding method known before 
room brooding was devised. Now let such a difference in efficiency 
exist in the branches of any business and we may be sure that- 
strenuous efforts will be made to bring the least efficient branch to* 
the standard of efficiency attained by the others. So with chick 
rearing. The efforts of intelligent poultry raisers to improve uponi 
inadequate methods of brooding resulted finally in the evolution of the 
room brooder — a device at once so simple, natural and efficient that 
the wonder is that it was not the first thing thought of when men 
first began to try to improve upon and supersede the old hen mother. 
The room brooder originated in Petaluma, California, and so quiet 
was its advent that it is not easy to determine who first used it with 
success. Mr. Thomas Vestal was the first one whom I heard of as 
operating them with success, he having placed 6000 chicks in six: 
rooms, in the fall of 1908, and reared 93 per cent, of them to the 



38 



The Western Poultry Guide 



broiler age. When I visited Petaluma early in January, 1909, for the 
purpose of investigating their best methods of brooding I had heard 
nothing of this method and, in fact, not many of the poultry raisers 
there themselves had heard of it, and still fewer had paid it the least 
■attention. Nothing was known of it at the Petaluma Experiment 




Flashlight of thirteen hundred chicks asleep in Room Brooder 



Station, and one of the most prominent breeders and egg ranchers of 
the district, whom I visited, scoffed at the notion, and showed me a 
string of sectional hot water brooders (with a capacity of 250 chicks 
each) that he was then constructing, with the remark that there was 
not likely ever to be any better way than that discovered. But seven 
months later this very man was selling pullets raised by the new 
method, and had himself advertised and put on the market an improved 
distillate burner for use in the room brooders. 

At the time I mention none of the experiment stations had heard 
'of the new way, nor any poultry paper; and, excepting for a casual 
reference to it by a Petaluma paper, nothing was printed concerning it 
xmtil I published an account of it in The Ranch, November 1, 1909. 
I continued to give it publicity in later issues of that paper and think 
1 may, with reason, claim to be mainly responsible for the installation 
■of the room brooder in large numbers in the Northwest. But I am by 
no means a rabid advocate of this method. By no means. I have 
always been at pains to state that great care was necessary in raising 
chicks by this means and I have personally discouraged from using it 
people whom I knew to be careless in the operation of lamp brooders; 



The Western Poultry Guide 39 

and who could not, therefore, be expected to exercise the needed care 
with the distillate houses. By this method a man's efficiency is multi- 
plied four-fold and, as the cost of equipment is but one-fourth that of 
the individual brooders, brooder house, pens and yards needed to raise 
the same number of chicks, the efficiency of his capital is increased 
four-fold also. And if handled to the best advantage a better lot of 
chicks can be reared; at any rate such is the belief and experience of 
many of us. But more than mat cannot be said for the room brooder; 
and it seems to me that is enough: that it is unreasonable to expect 
moi'e. Raising young chicks — no n ttter by what method — is not an 
indolent man's job. Constant watchfulness is necessary, and there is 
always something to be done. During the brooding season a man 
should be on the job all day long. His absences from his chicks should 
be of the briefest possible. The use of the room brooder gives a man 
a chance to achieve an adequate return for his work. He can feel at 
the end that he has a satisfactory showing for a man's day's work. 
But he has to keep fairly busy all day, because the chicks require 
frequent attention and continual watchfulness. 

There is a good deal of difference in the efficiency of the distillate 
burners (or stoves, we use the two words indiscriminately) on the 
market. I have investigated those most widely advertised and am 
convinced that the one I am now using is the best one made. For 
obvious reasons I refrain from giving the maker's name here, but I 
will gladly furnish my customers with that information, as it is to my 
nterest that they should have complete success in brooding. The 
best dimensions for the brood rooms are fourteen feet in width, four 
und one-half feet height of walls at side, with a quarter pitch roof, 
flaking the height of center of roof (or ridge) just eight feet. These 
Jimensions are perfectly in accord with one another and with the 
stove's capacity, and should not be varied; but the length, which is 
generally twenty-six feet, may be increased a few more feet if desired. 
I found houses of the dimensions given above to be ideal in shape 
and size for the brooding of from 1000 to 1300 chicks. I have not 
space to go into the technical reasons of the superiority of this shaped 
house over the square house advocated by some makers of burners, 
but will say that I had plenty of opportunity to compare this house 
with square ones operated by 'neighbors and am thoroughly convinced 
that it is much the best. The stove is placed in the center of the room 
—pipe goes straight up, no bends — and the ventilation is supplied by 
two box shafts, one at either end, on the principle of a dry kiln. The 
fresh air enters by one shaft and the heated air escapes by the other, 
(Plans for all this construction are furnished by the maker of the 
stove). The stove man recommends that these air shafts be made 
twelve inches square, but I believe that shafts twelve by twenty-four 
inches will be better, and will make them that size in all the rooms I 
operate next season. Two single sash windows are placed in each 



40 The Western Poultry Guide 

side of room, hinged at bottom, and opening inward into room from 
the top. The window opening should be covered on outside with one 
inch mesh wire netting and a strip of thin muslin drawn across the 
opening when window is open to prevent cold air from plunking down 
too hard on chicks. When the stove is in use the air shafts furnish 
perfect ventilation; but when the use of the stove is discontinued 
there is no longer a current of air through the shafts, and the windows 
must be relied on for ventilation. I should have said that the opening 
of the air shafts into the I'oom should be provided with a slide to 
regulate size of opening. 

A quarter inch feed pipe supplies the stove with its fuel. This 
pipe is run from the twenty gallon distillate tank placed outside of 
room at a height of from three to four feet above floor, and has a 
needle valve which controls the amount fed. Stove, valve, tank, one 
length of stove pipe and the amount of feed pipe needed, are all 
furnished by the stove manufacturer. It is advisable to cap the stove 
pipe with a movable bonnet which, as it always faces away from the 
wind, does away with any possibility of the flame of the burner being 
blown out in a high wind. An eight inch board set in around the base 
of the walls on a bevel and a further rounding or beveling off of the 
corners of the room, prevent chicks from smothering in case they 
start to pile up against the wall. 

From 1000 to 1500 chicks may be reared successfully in the above 
described room. Some California poultrymen have had good luck with 
i'.s many as 1750 to each room; but others have found this to be rather 
too large a bunch, and have reduced the number, with better results. 
I operated three room§ last spring, with 990, 1200 and 1300 chicks 
respectively, and had equal success with them all; and next season I 
will place about 1250 in each room. The chicks may be placed in the 
brood room as soon as they are dry but should not receive their first 
feed until forty-eight hours after the hatch is over. If the chicks are 
f-:hipped to you, ask the seller their exact age, so that you will begin 
feeding at the proper time. Do not give them a drink first. Feed 
them first and give them a drink an hour afterwards. And I have 
found that for the first few weeks it is best not to let them drink in 
the morning before they have the first feed of the day. 

When the chicks are first placed in the room a circular enclosure 
m.ade of thin muslin, and twelve to fifteen inches high and twelve feet 
m diameter should be staked around the stove, in order to keep the 
chicks near the stove until they have learned to go to it for heat. 
Three days, or at most four, is as long as this is needed and it should 
then be removed. They must be watched at first and spread out with 
a broom if they show a tendency to pile up. They do not give much 
trouble this way, but should be frequently visited. The windows should 
be furnished with good roller shades so that the room may be thor- 
oughly darkened at will. In this way the chicks' time of going to bed 



The Western Poultry Guide 41. 

and getting up is under control. When the muslin fence is removed 
watch chicks for awhile and herd them back to stove occasionally until 
they learn to go there themselves. They soon learn. It is the same 
with letting them out doors. When four days old, if the weather is 
fine, they may be allowed out doors; but for the first two days watch 
them and herd them back into the house occasionally. For the first 
few days I only allow them outside for a few hours in the middle of 
the day. I use a temporary fence at first, enclosing only a small 
space, as that reduces the trouble of herding them indoors. Until the- 
chicks are well feathered do not let them out too early in the morning 
or allow them to stay out too late in the afternoon. As soon as they 
learn to go inside to get warm I increase their yard room, allowing 
space about sixty feet square to each brood; and when three weeks 
old I remove fence and give them the range of as much ground as 
possible. By that time they have the homing instinct very strongly 
developed and if several broods are allowed the run of the same 
enclosure very few will fail to return to their own house. The more 
range they have the better and I advocate placing the rooms 200 feet 
apart if possible. 

At first the chicks should be fed every two hours, beginning at 
daylight. A cardinal rule to be observed is to be careful not to over- 
feed during the first two weeks, nor to underfeed after that. Thou- 
sands of chicks suffer through too generous feeding at first, and too 
scant feeding afterwards. The feed first used had better be a good 
brand of prepared chick food and the chicks fed only what they will 
scratch up quickly and eat with relish. No hard and fast rule can be 
given but I generally found two quarts sufficient to a feed for 1200, 
when starting. It should be scattered carefully and thinly over the 
whole floor space so all will have an equal chance. Once a day I feed 
them eggs, boiled from one to two hours, and ground up shells and all 
in a food chopper. This I feed on tin pie plates, a dozen or more to 
each room. The proper way is to keep making the rounds of the plates, 
not dishing out too much at a time, for they eat this voraciously and, 
if allowed, some of the huskiest will gorge themselves at the expense 
of the others. On my place thousands of eggs are set every week, 
and the infertile eggs tested out on the third day of incubation furnish 
enough eggs for the youngsters until they are old enough to eat beef 
scraps; and where this is not the case it will pay to buy fresh eggs at 
the low price that prevails during the brooding season. When a week 
old I give them two light feeds a week of fresh lean beef, boiled and 
ground in food chopper, or else liver or beef hearts. From the be- 
ginning I keep coarse bran before them all the time in troughs made 
of eave spout stuff, with a lip made of a thin strip of wood to prevent 
waste. When two weeks old I add a little beef scrap to this, but the 
greatest care must be taken that only a good grade of meat scrap be 
fed to young chicks. I am quite willing to tell my customers what 



42 The Western Poultry Guide 

brands of meat scrap and chick food I prefer to use myself, but I 
cannot afford to incur needless antagonism by recommending one 
brand above another in this article, or to casual inquirers. 

At two weeks of age the chicks may be fed some cracked wheat 
and when three weeks old the greater part of their ration is wheat 
and cracked corn. A little later I add oats to their ration, softening 
them by scalding. At ten days I begin reducing the number of daily 
feeds gradually and when three weeks old they are fed only four times 
a day and when a month old three times is often enough; but they 
have always the bran before them and as they grow I add some 
rolled oats, corn meal and soy bean meal, strengthening the mash 
gradually until, when three months of age it is about the same as that 
furnished the laying hens. During this middle period of growth a 
good deal of oats should be added to the ration, until it constitutes a 
third of their total food. Lots of green stuff should be furnished the 
chicks from the start. Early in the season chickweed and fine lawn 
clippings can be had and later lettuce, dandelions, etc., are good. 
When they are very small I throw green sods in to them and they 
enjoy pulling them apart. 

Fine grit should be furnished them with their first feed, and this 
with fine wood charcoal and dried (commercial) bone, (and later on 
oyster .shell) should always be accessible to them. The supply of 
water should be clean and plentiful. A good drinking vessel for use 
at first is made of a quart bottle, with a groove one-fourth inch deep 
in side of cork, placed upside dov^rn in a Mason jar cap and held in 
place by an upright stick. The whole thing should be mounted on a 
small block of wood three inches high. About eight of these are needed 
in each room. Later on coal oil cans, rigged in much the same way, 
may be used outside the room. 

Most poultry raisers have trouble through toe picking and other 
forms of cannibalism developed by their chicks. The superintendent 
of poultry at a large state institution, who visited me lately, says he 
believes it is a matter of heredity. I do not know as to that, but I 
have very little trouble of that nature and when it has shown I have 
scon checked it. I salt the semi-weekly meat feed — using only as 
much salt as I would in seasoning to my own taste, and sometimes 
add a few grains of black pepper. And I keep the chicks as busy as 
possible, and that keeps them out of mischief. When I find them 
resting I always scatter them a handful of chick food and that gets 
them busy and I continue to feed them some chick food daily, until 
they are a good size, just for the exercise they get scratching for it. 
I have observed that it is almost invariably a dwarfed or runty chick 
that starts the practice, and is most vicious at it; and as I promptly 
kill all backward chicks I have but little trouble. 

The chicks show by their actions if the right temperature is main- 
tained, but I always use a good, tested thermometer as a check on 



The Western Poultry Guide 43 

them. I suspend it by a wire about twenty-seven inches from side of 
stove and just clear of the chicks' heads, and I find it registers 92 
or 93 degrees when everything is going right at the beginning of the 
brooding. During the first week of the process the chicks may need 
a little smoothing out with a broom at bed time; and you should always 
be on hand at that time, in case of trouble. They should be visited an 
hour afterward to see if the heat is right, and again in the course of 
the evening, so that when you pay a final visit before retiring you 
can be sure that the temperature is settled. After you become used to 
the care of the burner you will seldom find it necessary to visit the 
brood room more than once during the night, one o'clock A. M. being 
the best time, usually, at which time it will generally be found neces- 
sary to strengthen the heat to offset the considerable drop in outside 
temperature between that hour and five o'clock. But it is best to err 
on the side of over caution and visit oftener than necessary until 
thoroughly accustomed to the business. 

During the coldest weather of last March my highest consumption 
jf distillate was seven gallons in twenty-four hours. The usual con- 
sumption early in the hatch was six gallons every twenty-four hours, 
gradually decreasing as the hatch progressed. About 180 gallons 
were used for the early hatches. Sometimes a little more is consumed 
if much rainy weather occurs late in hatch. The present cost of No. 1 
distillate is seven cents per gallon f. o. b. Seattle. 

During the first ten days the chicks, if comfortable, will form an 
almost perfect circle around the stove and from fifteen to eighteen 
inches away from it. At a very slight drop in the heat they move 
nearer and if too hot they back away. You can drive them four feet 
back by running up the temperature ten or more degrees. When the 
chicks are in the right position I never look at the thermometer; but 
vvhen they are not I do, so as to see how much of an error I have to 
correct. The stove that I use runs very evenly and a few degrees 
variation is not a serious matter anyway, but it is best to be careful. 
When ten days old they generally break formation and divide into 
bunches a little further away from stove. The temperature has 
been gradually lowered three to five degrees meanwhile. It is still 
necessary to superintend their going to bed, and perhaps regulate it a 
little with the broom; but chicks that are trained right at the start 
soon cease to give trouble in this manner. When six weeks old, roosts 
should be placed in the room, and in two weeks' time most of them 
will be roosting. I place roosts fifteen inches from floor and a foot 
apart. The cockerels should be removed and marketed at the very 
earliest possible age, and at three months of age all the pullets should 
l)e removed to other quarters excepting 200, which may be allowed to 
remain in the room until full grown; unless the rainy weather sets in 
before that time, in which case it is best to remove another hundred. 
It is best to cover the floor of the room with a slight coating of 
sand, or with loam if sand is not to be had. After the first week strew 



44 The Western Poultry Guide 

an inch of chopped straw on top of this for litter. That part of 
floor nearest stove should be cleaned daily; all the sand and litter 
removed, and the v^rhole thing should be cleaned out and renewed 
eveiy day. Later when the chicks are larger the cleaning should 
occur every day. Absolute cleanliness in all particulars is indispensi- 
ble. No feature of the whole business is of more importance than this. 

I hope I have succeeded in showing that chick rearing is a busy 
job and one requiring continual attention. But it is very interesting 
work indeed, and after the chicks are three weeks of age it is not 
necessary to spend so much time with them, and more attention can 
be given to other things. At the busiest time a good man can take 
care of four of these room brooders properly, but I do not advise 
inexperienced persons to attempt to care for more than two during 
their first season. That will give them lots of time to attend to every- 
thing in the very best manner and without getting rattled. After the 
first month considerable time can be spent at other work, building 
laying houses for instance; for it is not necessary to have any of the 
equipment of the place, except the brood rooms, ready when starting 
in. Everything else can be constructed long before it is needed. The 
brood rooms themselves contain about $30 worth of material, exclusive 
of the heating apparatus, which costs $22 more; and a carpenter can 
build one in four days, and a handy amateur can do it in a week. 
Starting with 1250 chicks to the room, at three months of age there 
will probably be (on an average) 550 pullets and other quarters must 
then be ready for 350 of them. I find a cheaply built open front 
colony house eight by forty feet, with a shed roof, affords ample 
accommodation for 200 of them until they are fully grown. One 
hundred of them may be left there for the winter if financial condi- 
tions render it necessary, but I prefer a different type of laying house. 
For egg ranches I recommend as large a laying house as possible and, 
if the house is sufficiently large, the fowls may with advantage be 
kept closed in and not allowed outside runs during the whole of the- 
rainy season. 

Starting with 2500 chicks in two brood rooms it is reasonable to 
expect to bring 1000 good pullets to maturity. When seven months old 
they will — if of a good laying strain — be paying their way and will 
rapidly increase in earning capacity. Just how well they will do 
depends a good deal on their owner, but I do not hesitate to say that 
the man who is capable of making any other form of agriculture pay, 
will r'o still better with poultry. 



The Western Poultry Guide ^p 

CHAPTER VII 



FROM EIGHT- WEEK OLD PULLETS TO EGGS 

By I. D. Casey, Waitsburg, Wash., Proprietor Casey Poultry Plant 



N VIEW of the fact that the time is fast approaching when 
eight week old pullets will be the popular method of purchasing, 
it will be of great importance for the buyer to know how to 
care for them to make a profit. 

There are two distinct methods of management which may 
be adopted, depending entirely whether the buyer intends to supply 
the market with eggs or meat, or whether he expects to use the 
pullets for breeders. 

First, we will consider the care of the stock for breeders, suppos- 
ing that your pullets have had proper care to the eight week old stage. 
Right here is where the care must be exercised. If she be a March 
or April hatched Leghorn, she should have no form of animal food, 
and we give as a reason for this, that it will hold dovvm development, 
until late winter, which is desirable. Here is the way to feed and care 
for her: Fresh air, grit, cracked wheat, sprouted oats, oyster shell 
and plenty of shade; plenty of range is also necessary, as is clean 
roosting quarters. Let them take the weather as it comes— let them 
wade in the snow and run in the wet grass; it means vitality to those 
very chicks next spring. 

The cockerels should be kept in more limited quarters, but given 
about the same feed and care otherwise, and not allowed with the 
pullets until two weeks before you wish to start incubation. 

You may secure hens that will lay two hundred and fifty eggs 
by using hens for breeders that have made a one hundred and fifty 
egg record during their breeding year, but you cannot expect even a 
one hundred and fifty egg hen fi'om the hen that has made the two 
hundred and fifty egg record during the breeding year. Therefore 
you must give the pullet ample time to mature, if you wish to use her 
for a breeder and obtain the best of results. Let her have her own 
way through the early winter months, thus allowing her to build up 
vitality and put herself in condition for breeding purposes. 

You have heard the amateur say that a pullet is worthless as a 
breeder. The reason for this is plainly understood, if thought is 
given the above statements. The man who sells you chicks from a 
high record hen during the season that she is making her record, 
with a view of starting you on a firm foundation, is either a fake or he 
is a fool. Many are the times we have received letters from our 
customers, asking, "How is it that the chicks we buy of you develop 



46 The Western Poultry Guide 

into such good layers and the pullets we hatch from their eggs are 
poor layers?" Bear with us a moment, kind reader, and your reason, 
will tell you why this is true. 

When the time arrives for you to obtain eggs for the incubator, we 
advise feeding as wide a ration of grain feed as it is possible for you 
to obtain, and about ten pounds of green bone (or its equivalent in 
protein) to each one hundred pullets, twice a week. Be sure and give 
these pullets all the free range that your farm will allow, thus 
promoting much exercise. 

If the pullets were hatched in June or later, we find it positively 
necessary to feed animal matter to get them to development properly 
for the breeding season. In fact, you will find that the more regularly, 
you feed animal matter, the faster they will develop, providing they 
have plenty of range and a variety of grain feed. We find that late 
hatched pullets mope and die, simply for the lack of animal food. It 
may be, if they have plenty of range and there is running water and 
there are not too many in a flock, they will find insects enough to 
supply the animal food, but when there is quite a number on the 
same range, even though it be a good range, the insects become scarce 
and you must substitute this animal matter. 

It is not necessary to tell the man who has only fifty pullets how 
to care for them to produce good breeders. Ninety-five per cent of 
the people who keep fifty fowls make a success in their small way, 
imt when a man attempts to breed from one thousand or two thousand 
and upwards, it is a different story, and herein lies the reason for 
the failures. 

FOR MARKET EGGS. 

These pullets, which we are about to consider, must be hatched 
from the eggs produced by the pullets considei'ed above, as they make 
the best market egg producers. These pullets can be fed, in addition 
to grain ration, an abundance of animal matter, until you have suc- 
ceeded to bring them to laying in five or six months — perhaps six 
months is plenty early to have any pullets begin laying and for 
best results they should be hatched in late April or May and kept 
growing. While there are many secrets claimed, the principal secret 
of having a good supply of market eggs in the fall months is good 
feed, free range, a good supply of animal food and good judgment in 
caring for your fowls. The secret does not lie in a can or package of 
a preparation placed on the market, by a man behind a "get rich 
quick" scheme. Don't forget this. 

Here is something else for you to store away for future reference, 
"Don't attempt to reproduce your flock by using these egg-producers 
as breeders, unless you have given the hens a good winter's rest, 
and even by doing this she is never as good as a breeder." Instead 
of feeding prepared "egg makers" as advertised by firms who have 
never had experience in the poultry business, prepare some one of 



The Western Poultry Guide 47 

the following feeds, which are really egg-makers. It is useless to 
try to feed with the idea of forcing a pullet to lay, if the fowl is not 
receiving the proper food, from which she may produce eggs. Milk, 
in any form, green cut bone, soy bean meal, fresh meat of any kind 
in connection with green feed and a variety of grain, will produce 
eggs and will assist in early development. 

We are giving you this advice, which is based on our fourteen years 
of experience on the Pacific Coast, and while several of our first 
attempts at poultry raising were failures, we have accepted them as 
lessons, and, as we have nibbled at the bait of failure we wish to 
guard you from the unnecessary stumbles, if we can. We find that if 
the pullets are placed in their laying houses they should never be 
allowed out in the mud or snow, for if they are laying, such a change 
from their "comfy" house to the cold rain and snow will check their 
laying and it will be several days before you can get them in laying 
condition again. 

Be careful not to over-feed with animal matter, for ten pounds 
of green bone to fifty hens, three times a week, is sufficient and will 
force eggs, if fed with sprouted oats, cracked corn and wheat, with 
plenty of oyster shell and sand for grit. We think the greatest mis 
take made by poultrymen is not providing a variety of feed. Fowls 
desire a change the same as you or I, and table scraps, milk, cabbage, 
kale, potatoes, etc., are all valuable; don't feed them twice a day, then 
go into the house and perch your feet upon the mantle with the stem 
of your briar pipe between your teeth and through the smoke from 
your pipe, dream of a case of 60-cent eggs. Let the hen know that 
you are on the job and they will soon let you know that they are 
with you. 

As a parting thought, let us suggest that you should not wait 
until eggs are fifty or sixty cents the dozen before you begin to look 
toward building up a more convenient poultry plant, for you will 
find it will take several months to get everything ship-shape and it 
will take even longer to bring your stock up to the highest efficiency. 
Treat the poultry business as a business and like a good business 
it will pay you. 



•4h 



The Western Poultry Guide 



CHAPTER VIII 



THE MARKET MAN AND THE POULTRY MAN 

By C. G. Shawen, Pomeroy, Washington, Breeder of R. C. Rhode 

Island Reds 





C. G. Shawen 



UR real aim in raising 

poultry should be to 

make the venture pay. 

Poultry on the farm 

pays because the fowls 
harvest a large crop of shattered 
grains that otherwise would be 
■wasted. The eggs from the flock 
and the increase furnish a vari- 
ety to the table and the surplus 
to supply the table with other 
articles needful from the grocer. 
Very few grocers buy live poul- 
try and here is where the market 
man comes in with the cash. 

My long experience in deal- 
ing in poultry has taught me 

many things. Nearly every farmer will have a few fowls to sell 
during the course of a year, and nearly all of them will sell to some 
dealer, hence, the dealer will know the general character of every 
one of his clientele. If I want to find out the real makeup of a man, 
I buy a few chickens of him. A dealer will go out of his way or give 
a fancy price to a customer who is honest and strictly on the square, 
and who does not assume that the marketman is crooked in his 
dealings. There is no reason why their business relations should be 
anything else but pleasant. People will accuse the dealer of being 
dishonest in his weights and dealings when the dealer will be abso- 
lutely on the square and the seller putting up the shady deal. The 
dealer realizes that he must give his customers satisfaction or they 
won't come back, so how foolish it is for the shady producer to get 
on a "high horse" because he was found out. The dealer is not going 
to be bilked, for he is in the business to make some money. 

Many producers assume the dealer is getting too large a profit so 
they proceed to use some scheme to get ahead of him. He may bilk 
him once, but he don't do it a second time. The dealer spots this 
man and makes a character-reading, and stores it away in his mind 
for further use. As a rule a dealer bids as closely as he dares — 



The Western Poultry Guide 49^ 

quite frequently too close, as I know to my sorrow. He will know 
within a fraction of a cent how much he can pay and the wise dealer 
and successful buyer pays very little attention to published quotations 
in the papers and no attention at all to the extravagant bids from 
the "get-rich-quick," "fly-by-night" concerns who are looking for 
suckers (and they get the suckers in producers who imagine the local 
dealer is not paying them enough for their stuff). The frequent use 
of the telephone or telegraph is the only sure way of keeping posted^ 

The producer will get a square deal from the buyers if they deal 
square with him. The trouble is, so large a number don't deal square.. 
They will catch their fowls with dogs, and hence the birds are scratched 
and torn and the buyers lose. They feed their birds all they can stuff 
before bringing them in — to make them weigh heavy — wheat at terr 
cents per pound. Some people will feed just a little and think the 
buyer won't notice it. Their excuse is that it is not humane to let 
them go without their breakfast. Some people have sick chickens — 
afflicted with roup, wens, waterbag, tuberculosis, cholera, frozen 
feet, etc., and attempt to work them off on an unsuspecting buyer 
and quite frequently they do, and if the dealer is looking for a shady/ 
reputation all he needs to do to get it, is to cull out these sick ones; 
and straightway this arbiter of all that is good(?) and true(?) will: 
start something. The itinerant buyer understands these schemes and! 
ht is on hand with his short weights and "does" the saint as well as; 
the sinner because they are all strangers to him. 

The most unjust of all schemes used is the practice of weighing^ 
a fowl or two out of a large bvmch (and the biggest birds are the ones 
usually weighed because easily caught) on a little "two-bit" spring 
scale which is made to weigh a pound heavy and then expect the' 
whole bunch to hold up to this average when the whole lot is weighed 
at one time on a scale that cost the marketman forty or fifty dollars. 
However, most producers who use these scales when convinced of 
their inaccuracy are quite liberal in their expectations. The dealers 
as a class are absolutely honest and times without number give a . 
square deal when they get a "rotten" one in return. 

I was in business two or more years before I became wise enough 
and experienced enough to be able to break over from the wholesaler ■ 
tc the retailer. If it took me that length of time to get in touch with 
the higher prices, how does the average producer of a few fowls expect . 
to break in? As soon as I obtained the better prices I passed them 
along and now my clientele get them and I make no more money tharj 
I did formerly. 

When the producer markets his stuff and he takes pains to see 
that his fowls are fat, crops empty of feed, perfectly healthy, not 
scarred or torn, he will be perfectly satisfied with the treatment 
received. 



•50 The Western Poultry Guide 

I want to express my thanks to the large majority of my patrons 
■who trust me and I know I have the greatest confidence in them. 
This is probably true of all marketmen. 

For the benefit of all, and especially the marketmen in embryo, I 
would say that I have always sold for cash and never consigned on 
commission. A concern that purchases outright can usually be relied 
upon. However, before you trust your shipments to a new firm, do 
a little investigating and ascertain from Dunn or Bradstreet whether 
such concern has a commercial rating. 

If the man you ship to overpays you on error, call his attention 
Tto the matter in a gentlemanly way. Trust to his honesty just the 
rsame as you want your clientele to trust to yours. If shrinkage is 
•excessive at times, don't "holler" too loud, remember your customers, 
lor you yourself may be to blame. In shipping alive, use good, solid, 
but light coops. Count the fowls when shipping and make arrange- 
ments with your buyer to do the same. Sometimes fowls have a 
strange way of breaking out, getting away, hence the excessive 
shrinkage at times. 

I ship alive in warm weather and dressed in cold weather. The 
weather is cool enough to ship one hundred and fifty to two hundred 
miles when frost conies. There is much more profit in shipping 
idressed. I pick turkeys dry and scald all other fowls. 

Dealing in poultry is only a part of my line of business, but I 
Keep a complete record of every buy and sale — person's name, kind of 
fowls, pounds and price per pound, and amount paid or received, as 
the case may be. Also, all expenditures for feed, telephone and tele- 
graph tolls, advertising, etc. Keeping record serves three purposes: 
you get a mailing list which is' invaluable; you know whether or no 
you are getting ahead, and how much; protection in case of stolen 
j)oultry. Don't buy from small boys. 

Shipping alive long distances is not profitable. The shrinkage on 
live stuff will run about six per cent — sometimes as low as three 
per cent and again as much as fifteen per cent; whenever shipments 
shrink, on empty crop, ten per cent and over, something is wrong. In 
.shipping alive you can put one hundred and twenty pounds of fowls 
in a thirty-pound coop, which equals one hundred and fifty pounds— 
me express limit. You pay express on fowls, shrinkage, coop and 
pay to get your coop back. In shipping dressed, you put two and a 
Ihalf times as much in a barrel, that weighs one half as much as a 
■coop, and costs perhaps ten cents more than it does to get your coop 
back. The shrinkage is about three per cent more and you get two 
cents more per pound. Six hundred pounds of fowls require five 
coops or two barrels of dressed; express rate $1.50 per hundred 
weight — price per pound paid, ten cents. 

An illustratioxi on a four cent margin basis: 



The Western Poultry Guide 51 

LIVE, 

600 pounds of fowls at 10c per pound $60.00 

600 pounds of fowls plus 150 lbs. coops (5) at $1.50 cwt., express 11.25 
Return of five coops 75 

Cost $72.90 

Assuming shrinkage at 6 per cent. 
600 pounds less 6 per cent shrinkage — 564 pounds at 14c 78.96 

Profit 6.06 

DRESSED. 

600 pounds of fowls at 10c per pound $60.00 

Cost of two barrels at 25c each 50 

Shrinkage on dressing, 10 per cent. 
600 lbs. less 10 per cent— 540 lbs. plus 30 lbs. (two bbls)— 570 

lbs. at $1.50 express 8.55 

Cost $69.05 

540 pounds dressed fowls at 16c 86.40 

Profit $17.35 

Deduct from this the cost of feed and labor if you hire the work 
done. Do the work yourself. Fowls dress away from nine and a half 
to ten and a half per cent. Suppose the shrinkage on the live ship- 
ment was ten per cent instead of six per cent, the profits would be 
cut $2.40 or down to $3.46. About all a shipper can figure on, on a 
margin of 4 cents, is ten per cent on the investment. On the same 
margin and same investment he can figure on a twenty-five per cent 
profit by shipping dressed. The wholesaler wants you to ship alive 
because he does the dressing and takes the extra profit. The shrinkage 
on the dressed shipment, when there is one, and there ought not to 
be any, is from one-half a per cent to one per cent. All dressed ship- 
ments should be thoroughly cooled before packing. 

How I dress poultry. I kill chickens by placing the wings between 
my knees with their feet out, take hold of their head and slit their 
throats through the ear lobes from one side to the other, and with a 
quick wrench dislocate the head from the neck. (Don't cut the throat — 
slit it) . I kill about a dozen at a time and toss them in a barrel to do 
their kicking. I have always scalded chickens, ducks and geese. 
Have the water at a little less than boiling — about one hundred and 
five degrees is about right. Take the chicken by the head and feet 
and dip, back downward. Don't scald too much. Turn fowl over and 
scald the feet and tail while picking the neck. Keep the head out of 
the water. Have a pan of cold water on your picking bench. Cool 
your hands in this water. You should do a first-class job in two or 
three minutes, counting time used in killing. I kill thirty an hour. 
Peel off the feet; the carcas looks better and sells better and brings 
you more money. Don't bear down too heavy on the fowls when 



52 The Western Poultry Guide 

picking; if you rub too hard you will take off too much of the thin 
outside skin (and in case of young ones, will tear the fowl). Keep 
as much of the outside skin on as possible. It makes the chicken look 
better and preserves it from germs. Have a large oak barrel ready, 
two-thirds or more full of cold water, and put the dressed stock in 
this water to cool off. 

Ducks and geese I hang up by the feet with a weight in their 
mouth and stick from side to side. This keeps the feathers clean. 
Bloody feathers won't scald evenly. I kill one at a time and have one 
dying while picking one. I pick a duck in about seven minutes and 
a goose in ten minutes. Scalding ducks and geese is the whole secret. 
Water must be hot, nearly to the boiling point. Pull their feet back- 
v/ard over the back and grasp the head and dip, breast down. The 
hot water will take hold of the feathers and open them, and the fowls 
scald evenly. Dipping this way does not scald the wings too much. 
Don't scald too much; five or six dips are enough. Try feathei's at 
the base of the neck on the back, if scalded enough, hold up by the 
head and dip feet and tail several times. Throw on bench, back down 
and head towards you, and get busy, quick. Take down, and all as 
you go. Don't rub too heavy; work your hand along and grasp the 
feathers — work from the front towards the tail, except on the neck. 
In short, in picking ducks and geese remember these points : Keep 
blood off feathers; kill one at a time; have water hot; dip breast 
do\vnward, and don't scald too much; if not scalded enough, dip again; 
cool off in water. I do nearly all my killing in the morning. The 
fowls are in this cold water until evening, when I take them out and 
spread them, or hang them to dry and let the water run out of their 
mouths. I ship next morning. The object of putting them in water is 
primarily to cool them, also the water prevents excessive shrinkage 
and the fowls look nice and fresh, otherwise they would look brown 
where the white outside skin was rubbed off in dressing. 

Turkeys are strung up, feet apart, with a weight in the mouth. I 
never could see any advantage to be gained by sticking turkeys in the 
mouth. Too frequently it is a poor stick and then you sure have 
trouble. I slit through the neck at the base of the jaws from side to 
side — hold the wings until the bird gives up and flaps his tail down 
between his legs. He has let loose of his feathers then and one may 
work as fast as he pleases. Remember this: Don't pull out a single 
feather until he flaps his tail, or you will very likely have a job on 
your hands. Hang up to cool — water is not used in cooling. 

About drawing poultry — I never draw the fowls. The birds have 
to fast at least twenty-four hours before butchering and they must 
be empty, hence there is nothing in them to spoil. Any fowl should 
not be prepared for eating until a day and night after killing. Vast 
numbers of well-meaning people knock the undrawn fowl from sheer 
ignorance. They will go out and get a hen that is full from top to 



The Western Poultry Guide 53 

bottom with food, that is in various stages of digestion, and of course 
the carcas smells. Sure it would stink if the birds were undrawn and 
shipped in that condition. These people judge the shippers and the 
stock by themselves and their way of preparing the bird. 

Why these people jump to the conclusion that infection takes place 
first in the entrails, beats me. The Creator so ordered things that 
infection takes place first in the death wound or injury. Hence if the 
forward and afterward parts of a fowl are opened to take the inside 
out the whole of the raw surface of the interior is exposed to the 
action of bacteria from the air. That clear, lymph covering of the 
interior flesh sours as quickly as milk when exposed to the air. The 
entrails were made to withstand infection and are the last parts to 
become tainted. Of course, if they are full (as the average person 
assumes, because they know no better) the contents become sour, but 
the entrails do not. Therefore is the reason why undrawn fowls keep 
better and are better than drawn fowls. 

I have tried several schemes and ways to handle poultry but the 
above outlines are my conclusions as actually practiced, and a 
result of actual experience to attain the three results — profit, speed, 
efficiency. 



The Western Poultry Guide 



CHAPTER IX 



SUCCESSFUL POULTRY RAISING — COMMON 
SENSE AND FRESH AIR 



3»£ 




B. S. Kennedy 



By B. S. Kennedy, McMinnville, Oregon, Proprietor of Fresh Air 

Hatchery 

F YOU are not a land owner 

and are intending to buy a 

suitable place, select a 

sandy, gravely, rolling place 

near good markets and ship- 
ping facilities. If you already 
have a place, make the best of it. 
Should it be flat, cold, damp land, 
make all your buildings with floors, 
four or five feet from the ground, 
using the imder room for the chick- 
ens' rest room during the summer 
months, and closing it in winter if 
it becomes damp. 

Be moderate in every turn you 
make, do not overdo your means, 
chicken knowledge or grounds. Sub- 
scribe for one or two good poultry papers published in the locality in 
v/hich you live. If you have a position or way by which you are 
earning reasonable wages, do not give it up; you can make a small 
start by caring for your birds morning, noon and night. Hold on to 
your job until you are forced by the increase of your chickens to give 
up one or the other, by this time you can decide at which end to 
let loose. 

There are three popular ways of starting in the business — buying 
baby chicks, buying pullets, and buying eggs and hatching your own 
chicks. If you prefer to make a start with baby chicks, you must make 
preparations for them in due time so that when you get them you 
will be ready. You must have a good brooder house first, and while 
the chicks are growing to maturity you can build other necessary 
buildings at odd times, I wish I could have a talk with every one who 
is puzzled over this brooder proposition, and tell them how to prevent 
their chicks from crowding, and piling up in the brooder and suffering 
for pure, fresh air, for I consider this the most vital part of the whole 
business, it matters not how strong and vigorous the little fellows 



The Western Poultry Guide 5S 

are when' placed in the brooder, and how well you water and feed them, 
unless your brooder is properly built, warmed and ventilated you 
will fail. 

Build your brooder house twenty-four feet wide as long as desired,, 
with five foot walls, little less than one-third pitch, double roof with 
rafters well tied together with one-by-six, seven feet from the floor 
and sealed overhead with good shiplap or matched lumber; eight 
and one-half feet on each side of the building floored with good 
matched lumbfer, leaving seven feet the entire length of the building 
without floor. On each side of this dirt walk-way build a pipe box 
seven inches deep and wide enough to allow two pipes running from, 
the heaters at one end of the building. 

These heaters are advertised and recommended in the leading 
poultry journals. They cause a constant circulation of hot water 
through these pipes and regulate their heat, enabling the poultryman 
to keep the right temperature in his brooders at all times, and are 
indispensible in the brooder house; full directions of installing and 
operating accompany each heater. 

After the heaters are installed and pipes arranged, the covering 
i^ tightly placed over the top of the box and round holes five inches 
m diameter are cut in the center of the top, four feet apart; over 
these holes invert a galvanized iron can, nine inches deep, and have the 
holes just large enough for the cans to fit in tightly and not work 
any farther down than one inch. Before the cans are placed, punch 
three-eighth inch holes in the side of the can all around, not farther 
from the bottom than two inches — this is very important as it allows 
the heat to pass out over the heads of the chicks. 

Then build a cool air chamber two inches high, directly over the 
pipe box by laying a matched lumber floor, on sills, two inches high, 
cross ways on the pipe box; a five inch hole must be cut for them to 
project through; be sure these cans fit very closely to prevent litter 
from falling into the cool air chamber. Now make a false floor, two 
by two feet, with a hole cut in the center of it, so it will fit over the 
can; this floor is intended to be taken out and cleaned at will. Build 
sides around these two by two floors to keep chicks from running 
about. Also build a hover of light lumber, say twenty inches square,, 
with a leg at each cor-ner just high enough to clear the inverted can.. 
Fringe around the edge of this hover to partially retain the heat. 

Between these two rows of continuous brooders, make a concrete 
walk, the floors on each side of the building are intended for runs 
for the chicks, and are about sixteen inches from the bottom to allow 
cats and small dogs to run for rats, and the brooders are built high 
enough for the false floor in each brooder to be on a level with the 
runs. This will cause the brooders and runs to be about eighteen 
inches higher than the concrete walk which makes it convenient for 
feeding and cleaning. 



56 The Western Poultry Guide 

Now bore one inch holes, four inches from the concrete walk, into 
the side of the pipe box. These holes must be about six inches apart, 
which allows the fresh air to pass into the pipe box, and is heated by 
the hot pipes and passes up through the inverted cans out through 
the holes over the backs of the chicks. This gives top warmth, as the 
cool air chamber is full of cool air and keeps the floor of the brooder 
from getting very warm. The rest of the fixtures about the building 
are arranged to suit your convenience, but this is undoubtedly the 
most successful brooder I have ever used. 

When it is completed, and about a day before you get your chicks, 
fill the boiler of the heater, start your fire and heat gradually up to 
ninety degrees under the hovers and regulate the heater to keep this 
temperature. Place one-fourth inch of sand on the floors of each 
brooder and cover this with fine cut clover or alfalfa — this will all be 
warmed by the heat and will be in nice shape for the reception of 
your baby chicks. 

Do not feed the little chicks until they are at least fifty hours of 
age — then have little pans about one and a half inches deep for 
charcoal, grit and fine ground oyster shells. Be sure the grit, char- 
coal and shells are ground fine — have a pan for each, do not mix them 
together. Have one-half gallon earthen fountains and give them pure 
water and the grit, charcoal and shells for the first feed. After they 
have eaten and pecked about fifteen minutes, tuck them back in the 
brooders to rest and take a little nap for two hours. At that time, 
allow them to come out into the run, where you have the floor sprinkled 
lieavily with sand and fine cut straw or clover hay. Sprinkle a little 
prepared chick feed about in places where they can easily find it and 
induce them to sci-atch. It will surprise you how early they will begin 
to scratch for their feed and it should be the aim of every poultryman 
to encourage them to scratch from the start. After they get to scratch- 
ing, never feed grains only in deep litter and let them dig it out. 
Keep the grit, charcoal and shells before them at all times, and about 
the third day, mix up a dry mash, consisting of equal parts corn meal, 
bran and middlings, one-tenth pait gluten meal and one-tenth part 
best beef scraps finely sifted. Keep this in shallow boxes before them 
all the time, if any signs of diarrhoea is discovered, or if you notice 
at any time any signs of indigestion — get, at the drug store, eight 
ounces of sulphate of iron, one-half ounce of sulphuric acid. Place 
the sulphate of iron in one gallon of very hot water and let it remain 
■over night or several hours — then when it is cool, pour in the sulphuric 
acid and use one teaspoonful of this in every gallon of drinking water 
and be sure to keep your drinking fountains clean, by washing them 
Avell every evening and airing over night. For white diarrhoea this 
is also good: One teaspoonful of five per cent carbolic acid in ten 
■quarts of fresh water. 



The Western Poultry Guide 57 

Be sure the water is renewed twice daily, and keep fountains clean. 
But if you follow these directions of feeding, force the chicks to scratch 
for the chick feed, keep them warm and happy, after each meal, of 
twenty minutes, see that they go back in their brooder and rest, for 
the first three days, you will have no occasion to need these remedies — 
they will grow like weeds. Be sure to have little outside runs for them 
and when you first let them out, be sure they are able to stand it and 
that it is a warm sunny day. Spread straw over most of the runs for 
them to play on, as it keeps their feet warm. Prepare a place to 
sprout oats and as soon as they are a week old begin to give them 
sprouted oats. Place it in a wire rack so they will not run over if. 
They will pick it out of the rack and run with it and this gives good 
exercise. This is what you must keep constantly in your mind: To 
give the chicks ways and means of exercising, rustling and digging 
for their living. 

Now it is very hard to convey on paper one-tenth of what is in my 
mind that I would have you understand in a way that would be 
plain to you, and I find that my time and space is limited, so I will 
have to merely give an outline of these thmgs and pass on to some 
•other important points. But before I leave this subject, I want to 
say: Be sure the chicks you buy are from good laying stock, stock 
that you know is vigorous, healthy and has never had any diseases, 
but have been well developed and properly bred and kept. For if they 
are not, failure will be your experience. 

BUYING PULLETS. 

The next way to start is to buy pullets about two to four months 
of age. Be just as careful in doing this as when you buy baby chicks — 
go to the breeder of whom you are to get your stock, get a history of 
the stock from which the pullets were bred; know that they are as 
good layers and have always been healthy and well kept. Be on 
the job when the pullets are cooped and see that you get good, smooth, 
healthy pullets of uniform size, type and color and free from lice. 

The houses must be in readiness and built as follows: If you own 
a farm of not less than thirty acres, the colony plan is recommended 
best for profitable poultry culture; this requires less investments, 
gives the chickens free and healthy range, and the most fertile eggs. 
No fences or gates to bother with, and the feeding and watering is a 
sample problem. It is done by using a horse to a low truck or sled, 
making a trip every night and morning. The houses are built with 
one-sided roof, and are about ten by fourteen feet, with rear walls 
four feet high, open fronts seven feet high. In dry districts no floors 
are needed, simply use the ground; have the perches about three feet 
from the ground, but if it becomes damp and creates a dampness inside 
the house at night, better have a good matched floor one foot from the 
ground and keep sand and deep litter on the floors all the time; these 



58 The Western Poultry Guide 

houses are built on runners and are moved easily with a team of 
horses, to any part of the farm. Keep them scattered out about two^ 
hundred yards apart all over the place, for best results. 

If your space is limited, and you want to raise chickens on an 
extensive scale you must use the intensive methods, which means 
many chickens on small space. 

Build your houses either on the continuous plan or many small 
ones close together. The continuous house is about sixteen feet wide 
and as long as you desire. It is open front, facing away from prevail- 
ing winds and storms; in flat land and wet, cold climates, build the 
floors four or five feet from the ground. The under room can be used 
to much advantage in warm, dry weather as a cool resting place and 
in winter it may be closed, but the idea is to keep your floors dry 
and keep them covered with deep litter for scratching rooms. 

The dropping boards are about two feet from the floor, with 
perches hinged to the rear wall ten inches above the boards. These 
perches can be raised to give easy cleaning of the boards. 

Build a rear and front yard to each house, whether small or long,, 
so they may be kept sown in "greens" for the poultry at all times; 
while one yard is being pastured off by the chickens, the other may 
be cultivated and sown to barley, oats or rape and in dry weather can 
be watered and grown quickly. 

Before I leave this part of the business, I want to especially 
impress upon your minds the importance of cleanliness. If you use 
the intensive method and do not keep your plant perfectly clean, you 
will wish you never had heard of the chicken business. While there 
are many commendable features in the intensive methods, and many 
great and prosperous yards in operation today under this plan, unless 
strict sanitary conditions are kept, the whole business will be a 
failure. It must be kept clean and all contaminated yards and grounds 
prevented. Contagious diseases must be looked after carefully, and 
the premises cleaned and sprayed often. 

BUYING EGGS. 

The third and last way mentioned in tuis article is to buy eggs- 
and hatch your own chicks. 

The same careful method must be used as in the other ways of 
starting. Be sure to know that the eggs you buy are from good 
laying stock and that they have always been well kept, hearty and 
without disease. See that they are turned twice a day and kept in 
a cool place while being saved up for you, and that they are not more 
than one week old — the fresher the better. Ask the advice of some 
experienced poultryman and those who have had experience in hatching 
chickens as to the best kind of incubators to use. I will not presume 
to suggest what make to use, but do not be influenced by anyone 



The Western Poultry Guide 59" 

that some other machine is cheaper and just as good — be influenced 
by experienced poultrymen. 

Follow the instructions with the machine, as the manufacturei' 
knows his own machine best and is capable of telling you the very 
best way to run it. I will not advise you along these lines, but I must 
give you my plans of building an incubator house, as it is very im- 
portant to have the correct amount of moisture and ventilation in the 
incubator house. Build the floor of concrete with four inch concrete 
walls; lay the sills on this wall, build a frame building with eight 
foot double walls. Good shiplap or matched lumber ceiling all over 
the inside and a rustic outside, with two by four studding; this allows 
a four inch space between walls. Now comes the ventilation. Close 
attention -please. Make ventilators in the comb of the roof to allow 
the foul air to pass out; cut holes ten by twenty-four inches in the 
center of the ceiling, about eight feet apart; cut same sized holes in 
the inside wall at the top of the sills, midway between those in the 
ceiling; cut same sized holes in the outside wall directly under the 
eve and over those inside, arrange the outside holes with shvitters so 
that during severe, cold, stormy winds they may be operated if 
necessary to prevent too much inlet of cold air. After a short time, 
the operator will become accustomed to the proper conditions of the 
inside air of the incubator hovise so that when he steps into it, he can 
tell instantly whether it is right or not and can operate these shutters 
accordingly. 

You will readily see the great advantage of this method of ventila- 
tion. The fresh air passes into these outside ventilators, down between 
walls, out into the room, gathers up the foul air and passes it up 
through the ventilators in the ceiling and out through the comb. Of 
all the different methods of ventilation for anything of this kind, 
this beats any I have ever used. Your floor is solid, and there is no 
jar in the room; the walls are double with cool air space between to 
prevent the room from getting too warm in hot weather. In other 
words, the outside temperature effects the inside temperature but 
little and you can run your machine more satisfactorily. 

Now my time and space is about up. I hope you have understood 
me all the way through — as I said before, I have dealt on rather a 
large scale but the novice or experienced poultryman who desires to 
keep only a few dozen or a hundred or so can make use of these plans 
on a small scale. Instead of building a large incubator room, he can 
use a small building already on the place; tear out the floor, use the 
ground instead of concrete, make a shaft running from the top 
ventilator holt to the lower one. If the walls are single, boards bat- 
tened on the outside, the air will pass in at the top, down the shaft, 
out in the room near the floor, and if the building is high enough for 
a ceiling, cut sufficient holes in it for the foul air to pass out. If it 
is not high enough and has no ceiling, make a hole in the top of the 



€0 The Western Poultry Guide 

roof, any old way, to get the foul air out. Instead of building a large 
brooder house, make a few single brooders on same plan, say have 
them three feet square, heated with a lamp; first floor of heavy sheet 
iron, fitting very closely around the edges to prevent the fumes from 
coming up among the chicks. Just under this iron, in the center, place 
a very low lamp, this is, with large flat fount, with low chimney. In 
one end or side of this lower lamp chamber, make a little door and 
bore a hole in it to allow the fumes to pass out. The door is used for 
placing the lamp, which heats up all this iron bottom, giving heat to 
an upper chamber, two inches high — this is the hot chamber, with some 
inch holes bored on one side to allow the fresh air to pass in and up 
through the inverted can as in the other plan. These will accommo- 
date one hundred chicks at first, which may be divided up as they 
grow older. The houses for laying stock can be built on the same 
plan with double yards, only on small scales. 

In conclusion, I will say, that after I have spent the best part of my 
life in the poultry business, there is no other vocation as pleasant and 
profitable, if the same careful judgment and caution is exercised that 
must be practiced in any other business proposition. Success is only 
secured by honest, persistent efforts on your part. Be a live-wire — 
be alert to all the good things to be had on all sides. Be a sticker, 
stay with it through thick and thin and you will reach the goal 
in the end. 



The Western Poultry Guide 



61 



CHAPTER X 



POULTRY DISEASES— THEIR CAUSES AND 
PREVENTION 

By G. E. CoNKEY, Cleveland, Ohio. 




Y BUSINESS for 

twenty years has 

been the treatment 

of poultry diseases. 

I have written a book 
on the subject, as some of you 
doubtless know. I am writing 
now on a special phase of the 
subject — and the most important 
part of it. I may be able to tell 
you some things new to you. But 
let us hope that most of what I 
tell you now, you already know! 
For I am going to show you 
how most diseases of poultry are 
preventable. I am going to point 
out the causes of 99 per cent of 
common poultry ailments. If 
you know the cause of a disorder 
you should then be able to pre- 
vent it. It is a fact that most 
diseases have preventable causes, 
and especially is this true of 
those diseases which are hardest to cure. 

In the first place, there are two classes of ailments of poultry — 
diseases of stock and diseases of management. 

It is plain to see that certain stock have inherited weaknesses and 
general lack of stamina or resistance to hardship, accident or disease. 
Such stock is quite liable to disaster, no matter what the poultryman's 
equipment or care. On the other hand, certain stock, inheriting great 
vitality and natural strength and resistance, will easily bear up under 
conditions far from satisfactory. In other words, weak stock under 
ideal conditions will probably show less favorably than vigorous stock 
under poor conditions. You can't maintain a state of health when 
there is no foundation for it. Of course you can improve the health 
condition but that is not always worth while, in the lower animals. At 
the same time the most vigorous natural vitality is lessened if the 




G. E. Conkey 



■62 The Western Poultry Guide 

fowl is subjected to unnatural hardship and strain. And it is always 
true, that no matter what the degree of success under poor conditions, 
it would be vastly better if those conditions were made right. The 
point I wish to make is this: It is never profitable to put up with 
poor conditions. Your fowls may survive or even show good progress, 
but you never get the most possible profit in the poultry business, 
unless you make it your business to see that conditions are right. 

The difference between the man who keeps chickens and the busi- 
ness poultryman is this: The real poultryman never rests until he 
feels sure conditions are right. In other words he is basing his success 
■on the law that nature will follow the line of least resistance. He 
puts as little as possible resistance in the way of nature. Thus he 
profits by her most favorable results. 

Having settled the question of stock, the poultryman can turn all 
Tiis attention to management. On management will depend his success 
in battling with the problem of disease. 

Let us have a clear idea to begin with as to all that comes under 
management. Housing and yarding come under management — and 
housing and yarding have a vast lot to do with disease. Feeding and 
watering the stock are the next points in management. Mistakes in 
feeding, or carelessness as regards purity of the water supply are the 
beginning of many forms of intestinal and digestive diseases. 

However suitable the house and yards, remember houses and yards 
are unnatural restrictions for poultry, and unless carefully looked 
after they soon become entirely unfit for further use. This brings us 
to the large class of ailments which are of germ origin and might 
really be called diseases of domestication, for they follow on the con- 
ditions due to overcrowding and close confinement of stock in a 
restricted space. Against diseases of domestication, in other words 
infection, we have but one weapon, and that is sanitation — a whole- 
some and wholesale cleaning up and disinfecting of the poultry quar- 
ters, not neglecting a single inch of space. In addition to the germ 
diseases which seem to follow close domestication there are the serious 
troubles from parasites, especially from lice and mites. While it is 
natural that the fowl's body should harbor a few lice, the conditions 
v/hich make it possible for these lice to develop in such numbers as to 
be really injurious are entirely unnatural. Lice and mites are just 
another curse of domestication. The poultryman who benefits by this 
domestication of fowls, should be willing enough to combat this curse 
<if such domestication. But how often does a man look cheerful when 
he goes out to fight lice and mites? 

Stop a minute and line up here what we have and you will see that 
preventing disease in poultry depends on 

(1) Selecting sound stock — that is, good individuals from reliable 
stock, whatever your breed. 

(2) Housing and yarding them in a manner best calculated to 
promote health. 



The Western Poultry Guide 63 

(3) Feeding wholesomely, and wisely, as to quantity, quality and 
manner of feeding. 

(4) Sanitation — reasonable care and cleanliness in all things relat- 
ing to the flock 

(5) Policing the flock — that is, protecting from marauding para- 
sites, including gape-worms, but principally lice and mites, chiggers, 
stick-tights, fleas, blue-bugs, etc. Policing also includes vigilance in 
the matter of disease, detecting sick fowls promptly and isolating them 
from the flock. 

We will go back to the statement that most diseases of poultry are 
preventable, especially those hardest to cure. Some friend at some 
stage of your life has undoubtedly advised you that a wee ounce of 
prevention was worth a whole pound of cure; and perhaps the same 
friend expressed his opinion that it was easier to prevent than to cure. 
You often hear his statement and I agree with it, and preach it. But 
I want to say right here that there is nothing about the subject of 
diseases which is "easy" — either to prevent or to cure. 

Of the two, prevention is easier than curing — but you can see for 
yourself that with the above five points to cover, prevention has 
nothing easy about it — it is a full sized job. It means painstaking 
care in all details of poultry management. It means hard work and 
unremitting care for little details, not one day, then skip a day, but 
day in and day out, seven days in the week, and fifty-two weeks in 
the year. 

While it is true you might neglect some one or more important 
details in management and still never know any serious trouble with 
your flock, you are making a dangerous experiment every time you 
take chances and there is more "luck" than management in the results. 

On the other hand, many poultrymen seemingly follow every im- 
portant detail of management and still have occasional outbreaks of 
disastrous effect. But in every such case when you get right down 
and study out the problem, you see that somewhere some serious 
mistake has been made, unconsciously of course, and the disastrous 
outbreak of disease in the flock was no more than the natural result. 

It's results, and not intentions, that count. 

For fowls do not get sick and die right off just from contrariness, 
or to spite their owner, or to prove to the pessimist that there's no 
money in hens. Disease and death are a natural result, not a freak 
of nature. Every effect has its cause. It is up to science to find each 
cause and lay down the rule; and then it's up to you to apply it. 

There are men who let their chickens shift for themselves — then 
wonder why they "don't do well." Or expose their fowls in shadeless 
yards in summer, or abandon them to swarming lice, yet talk about 
their lazy, loafing shiftless hens that don't even pay for their keep. 
Or, a man may leave chinks or knot-holes in his poultry house and then 
when roup season comes he gets the natural result. Or he may give 
himself a vacation in summer and marvel to find in early fall that 



64 



The Western Poultry Guide 



the poultry quarters are dirty and damp, just suited for incubating: 
"chickenpox." Or maybe it is another type of man who prides himself 
on really expert management, who pushes his flock to the limit all 
winter long and has plenty of eggs to sell — and then attempts 'to use 
the same over-worked fowls for breeding stock. Or with the best of 
intentions he may carry the principle of breeding too far and marvel 
at the degeneration which is the natural result. 

The gist of prevention is right breeding, right feeding, right 
housing. Disease in any form traces back to neglect of some essentials 
in management of these points. 

Let us take up in turn the most serious poultry diseases and study 
their causes. Every poultryman would include in such a list. Roup, 
Bronchitis, Cholera, White Diarrhoea, Gapes, Poisoning, including 
Mould (Aspergillosis), and Limberneck (Ptomaine poisoning), Chick- 
enpox or Sorehead, and that all embracing soui'ce of poultry afflic- 
tions — Lice. 

Roup is about the worst disease of the poultry yard. It may occur 
any time of the year, but commonly in what is known as roup season, 
late fall, winter and early spring. It generally begins with a cold, 
following exposure to sudden change in tem- 
pperature. A sudden change in the weather 
or a cold rain may start the simple cold, 
which later develop into roup symptoms. 
Now what do we usually find in a case of 
roup? A draught of air blowing directly on 
^■V"^ the heads of the fowls as they roost at night, 

■'^^ or overheating as a result of over-crowded 
conditions and poor ventilation in the poul- 
try house. Where fowls are allowed to 
over-crowd at night they become heated and 
then when they get out in the chill of the 
morning they catch cold, which is very likely 
to develop into roup. Or it may be the ovel'- 
heated condition of the air near the roosts 
Early stage of Roup — establishes a draught through some over- 
Shoivmg watering eyes^^^^^^ ^^.^^, ^^. ^^^^^^ ^^. k^ot-hole. Such a 
and sivoUen head , , , .,, , -i , ^ ,, ,, 

draught will strike most naturally on the 

fowls at roost. The liability of disease is increased if there are any 
filth accumulations in the poultry house. A fowl with a cold is in just 
the right low condition to take infection of any sort. Germs which 
would be resisted by the natural vitality of the body, find a sickly or 
out-of -condition fowl just the right favorable host, and it quickly suc- 
cumbs to disease. 

Clearly the right system of housing would prevent over-crowding, 
especially on the roosts at night; prevent danger from over-heating 
and impure air for breathing, by insuring perfect ventilation for the 
poultry house. Ventilation and fresh air do not mean draughts of air.. 




The Western Poultry Guide 65 

Fresh air is absolutely necessary for the health of your flock; but 
draughts of air will absolutely bring trouble sometime or other, accord- 
ing to your particular brand of poultryman's "luck." One reason 
why so many favor the open front and the curtain front style of house 
is because they settle this vital problem of ventilation without danger 
of draught. Clearly the right poultry management would guard against 
accumulations of filth and disease-germ beds. Filth always means 
risk of disease. 

When a poultryman has roup in his flock and has positively guarded 
against causes given above, the trouble must be traced to direct infec- 
tion by germs brought into flock either by a new bird, or on the feet 
of visitors from an infected plant, or less often by means of germ- 
laden air, or polluted water supply. Do not overlook any possible source 
of infection. Always quarantine new birds for at least fourteen days 
to give any infection a chance to develop without risk to the flock. 

Another common disease, often mistaken for roup, is bronchitis. 
With most poultrymen anything in the nature of cold is "roup." Like 
roup, bronchitis is traced to sudden changes in temperature, but 
instead of affecting the eyes, nose, etc., the irritation extends to the 
bronchial tubes. Sometimes the irritation is due to breathing a dust- 
laden atmosphere or irritation from lime, etc. But usually filthy 
quarters and bad ventilation cause the inflammation. While bronchitis 
is distinct from roup and should be differently treated, the cause is 
the same, and the disease is subject to the same rules for prevention. 

Cholera presents a different class of diseases; for under this one 
head are grouped a great variety of digestive disorders, bowel trouble, 
etc. The real Asiatic cholera is practically unknown in this country 
and is of course a specific germ disease. Cholera as the poultrymen 
of this country know it is any form of intestinal irritation, or imperfect 
digestion, ranging all the way from simple diarrhoea from upset diges- 
tion, to enteritis. With the exception of white diarrhoea which is now 
better understood than formerly, and is classed as an entirely distinct 
disease, all cholera in chicks or grown fowls is due to some fault in 
feeding, or to some infection allowed to get into feed. The fault in 
feeding may be too much animal food or too much green food, or it 
may be from unfit, that is, spoiled, food. A common cause is feeding 
sloppy food, and then allowing it to lie around before the flock until 
soured. Sometime the trouble is with dirty or undisinfected feeding 
and drinking utensils, or stale and polluted water. Sometimes the infec- 
tion is direct from filth accumulations, or from droppings from a 
neglected case of cholera. Of course, no matter what the sickness, 
prompt isolation of the sick bird from the rest is the only reasonable 
course — for infection spreads quickly among all classes of domesticated 
animals. Not only must the carcass of a dead bird be removed, but 
all droppings must be cleared away and the quarters disinfected 
thoroughly. In most contagious diseases the body discharges are the 
principal source of infection. 



66 The Western Poultry Guide 

Right feeding — that is, right selection of foods, right condition as 
to quality and careful cleaning of feeding utensils — combined with 
sanitary care, will prevent cholera diseases. 

White diarrhoea — so long mistaken as a digestive malady of little 
chicks — is now recognized as a bacillary disease due to direct infection 
in the body of the chick itself, from infected parent stock; or in the 
shell from which the chick is hatched. The disease may be spread from 
the droppings of affected birds. But the common cause is direct 
infection in the eggs used for hatching. The best prevention is to 
treat the parent stock. As the principal infection is in the egg, most 
often on the shell — which takes up the germ while the egg is passing 
through the diseased cloaca of the hen^ — one of the most practical 
means of preventing is to disinfect all eggs used for incubation. For 
this 95 per cent grain alcohol is usually recommended, but a reliable 
disinfectant solution can be used as well. Of course the egg trays 
should be thorocghly scalded and disinfected, and burlap parts in the 
nursery and elsewhere should be replaced with fresh pieces. A con- 
siderable number of proprietary remedies are on the market which 
claim to prevent the disease in mature stock or in new-hatched chicks. 
For the most part, these treatments are still in the experimental stage 
and the poultryman will do well to confine himself to those which are 
offered on merit, with some positive guarantee attached. 

Another common disease of little chicks is gapes. It is one of the 
very easiest to prevent — and every poultryman knows it is one of the 
most annoying to cure. As the cause of the disease is a parasite — the 
gape worm, or rather worms, which are found in attached pairs in the 
trachea of the little chick — and as this parasitic worm has its origin 
in the common earth worm, the best thing is for the poultryman to keep 
little chicks off such ground and away from other chicks which are 
infected and which are liable to cough up the worms and thus expose 
other chicks; as of course other chicks greedily pick them up. It is 
never safe to start a flock on grocnd that has been used before by 
gape-infected chicks. If they cannot be given new ground, they will 
have to be kept on a platform covered with new fresh earth that is 
known to be safe from infection ; and this earth will have to be renewed 
at intervals to keep it fresh. 

Where it is absolutely impossible to remove to new ground, the 
only thing is to take extra precautions disinfecting, using some power- 
ful and thoroughly reliable disinfectant solution. While it is true that 
with tonic treatment to restore vitality to the little chick, and drastic 
treatment to kill the gape-worms in the wind-pipe, you can often save 
your chicks even though badly infected, gapes is certainly a disease 
which is easier to prevent in the first place, by a little more care in 
selecting the run for the flock. 

Chickenpox, or sorehead as some poultrymen call it, is claiming 
more and more attention among chicken men. The scabby warts on 
comb, lobes and face are often mistaken for accidental injuries, instead 



The Western Poultry Guide 



67 



of being recognized as the symptoms of disease. This confusion may 
account for some neglect of the proper study of chickenpox disease 
for many years. 

In damp, cold weather in the fall, chickenpox is very apt to make 
its appearance wherever any neglect of the poultry house during the 
summer has resulted in an accumulation of droppings, and these have.; 
become wet. Chickenpox starts with a 
fungus growth, which multiplies in 
damp quarters very rapidly. While the 
disease is not necessarily fatal, it is 
very contagious and troublesome — and 
could far better be prevented. Scrup- 
ulous care in the matter of cleaning the 
poultry house in late summer and fall, 
and special care to keep the quarters 
dry all the time, and sunned occasional- 
ly, will prevent this "smallpox of the 
chicken yard" from ever making its ap- 
pearance. Of course along with this 
must be proper care to keep infected 
birds from the flock. All strange birds 
should be duly quarantined, no matter 
what the reputation and endorsement of 
their previous poultry yard. Never take 
anything for granted when handling 
any one's else chickens! 

Poisoning is one common cause of 
trouble in poultry yards. Many strange diseases which are referred! 
to me prove on investigation simple cases of poisoning. Sometimes-- 
very strange symptoms are reported in connection with these myster- 
ious cases. But usually the common symptoms are the only ones notedJ 
— such as trembling, convulsions, and drowsiness and hiding away iiu. 
dark places. Usually such cases are discovered too late to make am 
antidote or emptying the crop effective. But even where the poultry- 
man knows exactly what antidote to use, or has it on hand ready for- 
the emergency, how much better to avoid all danger in the first, placev 
by preventing the distribution of poisonous substances in places where; 
the flock can get at it? 

Many householders and poultry men are quite careless in the maiter- 
of using insect killers, or throw out such substances as salt meat, salt 
brine, lye, etc., in places where the chickens are liable to suffer the 
consequences. One very common source of poisoning in fowls is olci 
paint, fertilizer mixtures, etc., etc., left in unseemly places. Many 
fowls meet death eveiy season from such easily preventable causes-^ 
One often "dosn't think" — until too late! Mould, or Aspergillosis as 
it is scientifically termed, is really poisoning from mouldy hay or 
scratching material, inhaled by the fowl — or more often from nKSoEdsj' 




Chickenpox or Sore Head- 
Showing scabby warts 



The Western Poultry Guide 



:food which is eaten. Some unthinking people even throw out such 
iwnfit material as mouldy spoiled vegetables, or musty, burned wheat, 
^with the expectations that their chickens will "get the good of it." 
2^ow mould is one of the diseases which can't be successfully treated. 
Here is a case where you must prevent in the first place or take your 
Uoss if it comes. 

Limberneck is really poisoning. Limberneck is the peculiar symp- 
tom which follows ptomaine poisoning. Any rotten, putrid animal 
matter fed to chickens, or to which they find access accidentally, is 

more than likely to poison 
them. Some poultrymen 
think "limberneck" is a 
"contagious" disease. It 
isn't contagious — one bird 
can't get it from another. 
But they all get it from 
the same cause — for what 
one fowl gains access to 
the whole flock feast on-- 
and thus the whole flock 
usually comes down with 
limberneck. While limber- 
neck is easily treated by 
antidote, how much easier 
to prevent all danger in 
the first place. A little 
more care in feeding only 
•wholesome meats and fish ; and special care in seeing that the premises 
are kept free from dead fowls, dead rats or carcasses of any sort, 
"would make fewer hurry calls at the druggists. Burning and deep 
■burying of all dead animals or putrid animal matter, is always the 
safest way. 

While we could go on in this fashion and name practically every 
Icnown poultry disease, the above should cover the most important 
;ailments, and certainly cover all causes — 

Except for LICE, the one great cause which explains so many 
diseases, so many setbacks, so many poor egg records, so much of 
the poultryman's loss. 

It is hardly too much to say that lice make more trouble and loss 
i'or poultrymen than all other causes combined. 

In fact, my first advice to the amateur poultrykeeper is to look 
for lice. 

If you don't find them, then look again. 

If a fowl is not doing well, or is in any respect below standard the 
•chances are largely that the whole cause of trouble is parasites — 
(Collectively speaking — lice. If this little talk to poultrykeepers could 




Liimher Neck- 
poisoning 



-Paralysis due to ptomaine 



The Western Poultry Guide 69 

serve to impress this one fact more firmly, it will be time and effort 
excellently well spent. 

The time to look for lice is all the time, but chiefly in warm weather. 
If neglected at this time, that is if allowed to breed unmolested, they 
increase so rapidly that within a few short weeks they will own most 
of the shares in your poultry plant and take practically all the profits. 
It is absurd to tolerate such a partnership. 

When you go into the poultry business, go into business with the 
poultiy and not with the lice which are liable to infest them. It is 
necessary to realize in the first place that lice and poultry go together. 
But on the other hand, lice and profits never go together. You take 
care of the lice question — and in nine times out of ten your poultry 
will take care of your profits. That's the best advice I can give any- 
one on the subject of success with poultry. 

I can imagine now the expression of Mrs. Jones or Mrs. Smith ov 
any other careful housekeeper who also "keeps chickens." She is so- 
sure her fowls don't have any lice. But I know that lice are natural 
to fowls. Unless they have just been treated for lice, I could take up' 
almost anybody's bird at random, hold it up by the feet, ruffle the 
feathers, and then sift lice powder into the plumage, shaking it well 
down to the skin, stand the fowl on a sheet of paper, and after a 
shake or two down would come a shower of lice on the paper — dead 
lice, if the powder is what it should be — and I never would use any 
powder which will not stand such a test. Lice are easily scared or 
stunned, but not so easily killed. And the dead louse is the only kind' 
you can safely have around your premises. Insist on a lice powder- 
that kills lice, not merely stuns them or scares them, or you will have 
your work to do all over again. Mrs. Jones and Mrs. Smith, won't 
you please try this experiment? 

And here is a job for Mr. Jones or Mr. Smith. There is a certain^ 
kind of louse which lives in the poultry house and only attacks the 
fowls by night. This is the "mite." The mite has all the habits of a 
certain other well-known pest — the horror of all good housewives, and 
they certainly know how to make war on these fellows and keep them 
absolutely out of their well-kept houses. The mite of the poultry house- 
is own cousin to this villian, the bedbug — is in fact a sort of poultry 
bedbug, hiding in cracks and walls or on roosts by day, and only 
coming out at night to swarm over the helpless birds as they roost. 
The lice found on the bodies of fowls irritate and sap the energies of 
the bird; but the lice or "mites" of the poultry house actually suck 
blood, thus sap the vitality of the fowls as they roost, as well as- 
destroying their rest. Now, Mrs. Smith or Mrs. Jones can do this job, 
but it's a heavy one, so I would offer it first to Mr. Poultrykeeper — 
the job of making war on mites. 

For war it is. When you get after mites in the poultry house you- 
must get after them right. Get into old clothes, clean up, remove all 



70 The Western Poultry Guide 

droppings and accumulations. Then, with a good disinfectant or lice 
liquid go over the whole place. Spray the walls, make sure to get into 
■every crack and comer. Use it extra strong on roosts, on dropping 
board and in nests. If the interior of the house has not been white- 
washed in some time it will be necessary to apply this. You know the 
.rule is white-wash once a year at least — and twice a year is best. 
Your aim is to destroy the pest at its source. You cannot treat mites 
on the bodies of your fowls, you must get after them in the breeding 
places in cracks and corners where they hide by day. Only a liquid 
or fumes will do this. Fumes are more dangerous and less handy to 
use, so that we always advise using a good lice liquid for this work. 

If you are in a section where fleas, chiggers, blue-bugs, etc., cause 
trouble, remember that hot whitewash will give you a fresh start; and 
then constant vigilance with strong disinfectant and lice liquid will 
keep things right. Remember that sunlight is always a big help against 
parasites such as these, as well as a general disinfectant and pre- 
ventive of germ disease. 

There is a certain kind of louse that established itself on the 
head of the older fowls but leaves them to attack the chicks soon as 
the chicks are hatched. This is the long-bodied head-louse — one of the 
biggest sources of loss of little chicks. These lice fasten themselves on 
"the head or neck, sometimes under the wing of t\\e chick, but usually 
•on the neck, at the base of the skull. They suck the blood, sometimes 
•even penetrate the skull into the brain of the little chick. Two or 
three of these lice can easily kill a chick or stunt its growth entirely. 
When a little chick droops always look for these lice. In the case of 
liead-lice only individual treatment will answer. This treatment must 
be in the form of a head-louse ointment, for powders and such like 
substances will not reach them. 

Thus you see there are three different kinds of lice. You must 
tackle all three. No one method of treatment or of prevention will 
tmswer. There are three kinds, remember, and your poultry manage- 
ment must cover all three. 

The best rule is to get after them early in the season — never let 
them get a good start. Keep ahead of the game. "Keep ahead of the 
game." That's the best rule always, whether applied to the subject of 
lice or disease. Never let trouble get a serious start. 

Study causes, then practice prevention, in all your poultry manage- 
ment. It's prevention that counts. 

Study the needs of your particular flock and the purpose of your 
particular plant. Find out and then follow the best system of poultry 
management for that individual flock and purpose and you will have 
settled practically nine-tenths of all trouble with poultry diseases. 

When poultrymen write direct to me (as I invite you to do, if you 
wish to) regarding poultry troubles, there is one word they use very 
often, and it's a word I don't like to admit into any serious talk on 



The Western Poultry Guide 71 

poultry. That word they use is "luck." When I run into this word in 
a poultryman's letter, I substitute another word, which I consider is 
better. This word is management. Thus, when a poultryman writes 
me "I had such bad luck this season," I read it "I had such bad manage- 
ment this season" and study the case from this viewpoint. Or if he 
writes "I'm getting along fine this time — never had such good luck 
before!" I write straight off and congratulate him on his good 
management. 

I don't believe in poultrymen's "luck," I certainly know there's 
no "luck" about poultry diseases — it's good or bad management that 
determines a given result. 



72 The Western Poultry Guide 

CHAPTER XI 



SANITARY WATER FOUNTAINS 

By D, H. Gray, Armona, California, Breeder of S. C. White Leghorns 




NE of the perplexing problems in poultry culture is furnishing 
the fowls at all times with clean, cool water, and as the 
scientist gives us the information that the egg is composed 0/ 
about 73 per cent water, it can be seen that the hen should not 
be allowed to go thirsty. 

There are some who water their poultry by the means of a bucket 
and hard labor, in fact I adopted this plan at first myself, but after 
one summer's experience I found that it kept one man going almost 
constantly carrying water to keep the hens supplied. It is next to 
impossible to keep up a steady egg yield and follow the method of 
carrying water to the hens, especially when one has several hundred 
or several thousand. 

It is very convenient to have a brook or ditch running through the 
yards, but we are told by those that have had experience that this is 
a dangerous method, for disease is easily spread by this means. 

The next idea that yould present itself would be to have water 
piped to each yard, and there be turned on by the man who cares for 
the hens. But this method has its drawbacks as when one is depending 
upon hired help to do that part of the work, it will often occur that 
the man vdll neglect to turn on the faucet. If these faucets are allowed 
to drip as is sometimes done, there will not be enough water, and then 
again there will be too much, so that puddles are formed, and the hens 
are allowed to contract disease. 

So, after thinking over the different ways and means, which one 
might follow, I decided to make use of the float-valve, like those used 
for watering livestock, only of smaller dimensions. In the place of 
galvanized iron or tin, I made concrete troughs at a very little expense. 

The water is first run in a barrel from the tower tank, as the 
direct pressure from the tank on the valve does not work as satisfac- 
tory as when taken from the barrel. The water is then piped to the 
yards, one trough supplying two yards by being placed half on each 
side of the fence that divides the pens. 

It will be seen by the drawing that the concrete trough is placed 
about eighteen inches above the ground on a platform two feet wide 
and three feet long, so that the fowls cannot scratch litter into the 
water, and still not too high for them to hop on the platform to drink. 



The Western Poultry Guide 



12! 



The platform also serves to keep the ground dry, under the trough, 
and thus aid sanitation. 





The trough is four and one-half inches deep, two feet long, and ten 
inches wide, inside measurement. It is made by making the outside 
form of one by four lumber, 
inside measurement being 
twelve by twenty-six inches. 
As can be seen by sketch No. 
2, inside of this frame is 
placed a strip of galvanized 
iron five inches wide, and 
aoout five feet six inches 
long. This is put around in- 
side of the square wood frame to make the corners rounding. Inside 
of this is placed the inside form of the trough so that it is bottomside 
up. This form should be made of galvanized iron, and in such a 
manner that there are no corners, and when put inside of the band of 
iron the bottom should be about one-half inch below the top of this 
band of galvanized iron, thus making the bottom of the trough about 
a half inch thick. It is a good plan to put over the curved form some 
wire netting, and thus reinforce the trough, of course this wire does 
not want to be made to appear on the surface of the trough but be 
kept covered by the cement. 

The edge of this cup-shaped form is so made that the edge of it is. 



74 The Western Poultry Guide 

about one inch from the band strip of galvanized iron, and in arrang- 
ing the form in this way the top of the trough has an edge one inch 
thick all around. 

As soon as everything is put in place preparatory to pouring in 
the cement, all parts of the galvanized iron that are to be exposed to 
the cement should be thoroughly greased with any kind of machine or 
other oil, for if this is not done the cement will stick to the iron and 
it will be almost impossible to take the form away from the trough. 

When all is in readiness a mixture of one part cement to one part 
sand and enough water to mix well should be poured into the form and 
be allowed to set one day or until the cement is rather hard, when all 
parts of the form should be taken off, and the inside of the trough 
fmished with a mixture of pure cement and water, being rubbed down 
by hand or a smooth block, so that the inside surface is perfectly 
smooth. When the trough is thoroughly dry, after a day or two, it 
may be put upon the platform as shown in sketch No. 1, and water 
piped to it through a three-fourths-inch main pipe, reduced down to 
a half-inch to which the float valve is screwed. It can be seen in 
the drawing that instead of a common ball for the float as is used on 
larger troughs, a square float is made of light weight galvanized 
iron, one inch thick, three inches wide, and six inches long. This 
float is soldered to the rod that controls the valve, and it being 
flat will give plenty of room for the water control. 

It will be seen that above the trough are suspended two pieces of 
light weight galvanized iron, one foot wide and three feet long. A 
hinge is formed by fastening them to a strand of the fence above. 
There are also two wire hooks that are fastened to a strand still 
further up on the fence, that hook under the outer edge of the strips 
of iron to keep them spread out over the trough, forming a roof, thus 
affording a shade for the water. In the winter time these strips of 
iron are released from the hooks and are allowed to hang, and in this 
manner keeps the water at the proper temperature. 

It will also be noted that there is a wire hook fastened to the 
platform, that hooks over the pipe to keep the valve down so that the 
float can properly control the valve. 

It might be asked why the troughs are not made of galvanized iron 
or some other metal. The answer to this would be that it is some 
times necessary to put permangunate or other chemicals in the water 
as a tonic for the fowls, and most of these chemicals act on the 
galvanized iron to weaken the solution and eventually destroy the 
metal. Another reason is that the cement keeps the water much cooler 
than would the metal. 

It is the duty of the poultryman each morning to clean out the 
troughs by releasing the hook that holds dovim the valve, and raising 
the valve and float out of the trough and with a small whisk-broom 
sweep out all of the water and thoroughly scrub the trough, which is 



The Western Poultry Guide 75 

easily cleaned, there being no corners, and the inside surface being 
smooth. Every week, or as often as is necessary, the troughs are 
scalded out with boiling water. After the cleaning, the valve is again 
hooked in place and fresh water fills the trough to the proper level. 

I have used this system for two years with fifteen fountains in use, 
supplying thirty pens, and find it to be very satisfactory, as I have 
not had one case of contagious disease among my fowls. It is a good 
plan to run water under pressure through all of the pipes, before 
laying it, so that all of the scale and other particles may be washed out 
of the pipe. If this is done there will be nothing to get under the seat 
f)^ the valves, and thus cause them to afterward leak. 



76 The Western Poultry Guide 

CHAPTER XII 




ADVERTISING AND POULTRY SELLING 

By Amos Burhans, Waterville, Minnesota 

DVERTISING is any form of publicity that places the name 
of a man and his work before the people. Most advertising 
is constructive. Advertising can be destructive. The latter is 
grown from the seed the breeder germinates in the mind of 
the buyer who is not well pleased with his purchase. When 
you buy your first pen of good birds and let the neighbors know you 
are championing them, your advertising commences. It never ceases 
until the fatigue of memory overtakes those who have heard of your 
birds and yourself. This is the reason that advertisers of years ago 
are getting replies today for stock they are not now breeding. 

Continuous advertising is the basic principle of publicity. Even if 
your ads. read poorly, are too small, badly displayed, continuous ad- 
vertising is going to do its work. It will not do its work so well as if 
the ads. are changed often to make them seasonable, and the matter 
properly worded to attract, but nevertheless it will pull. Just the 
same idea is incorporated in the saying, "I can tell a man's bi'eeding 
methods by his ads.," as is contained in the old saw, "Show me a man's 
shipping coops and I'll tell you what his flock looks like." To prove that 
one is alive he must keep doing live things. 

Very few breeders of more than a year's experience are not ac- 
quainted with poultry journals. There are a few breeds of pure- 
bred stuff that one reaches only through the farm papers but their 
number is small compared to the army of readers who go to the poultry 
press for the information they want about rearing and buying. The 
poultry press is the one great medium through which the seller and the 
buyer are brought into touch. Every fancier who is reaching out for 
more business should persistently use the poultry journals if he expects 
to develop trade that will make his business grow. He should be an 
ardent supporter of the journals in his own states and determine by 
their returns on the investment he makes with them just how much 
space he can profitably use. But he should remember that in some 
instances it has been known to be profitable to inci'ease advertising 
to get better results and in others to cut down the space in order to 
make the investment bear paying returns. One must judge from the 
liveness of a journal — its contents, number of breeders represented, 
the interest patrons take in it, its editorial matter, and general makeup 
■ — all these and more, must be considered before a perfect judgment 



The Western Poultry Guide 77 

can be formed of its value to the breeder. There may be something 
wrong with the advertising, the way it tries to make an appeal, 
its wording, its note of warmth or aloofness, that delays returns. The 
p/inciples are soon learned in the advertising game but the little 
details that go to make up the finer points come only after serious 
study and experience. 

Farm journals are best used to sell incubator eggs and the cheaper 
grade of stock, though of late years the best poultry journals have so 
steadily persued large circulations that their own readers have afforded 
a market for the same class of birds the buyers of farm journals de- 
mand. In using farm journals it is best to give prices of birds offered 
in the ads. These journals are the basis on which the forty variety 
man banks his advertising. He sells cheaply, ordinary stuff fills the 
bill in a good many instances and he knows that when he gets a reply 
from a reader of a farm journal that they have a plot of ground to 
rear chickens on and are really interested in starting. The big variety 
bi'eeder once gets a good farm journal name on his card index and he 
never lets it get off without knowing that the intending buyer has 
purchased elsewhere or else changed his mind, so persistent is the 
follow-up. Even then, the name is kept for a folder or small bit of 
advertising to be sent him later. Sales come from most unusual 
sources and it is the business of every breeder to cultivate the un- 
likely as well as likely spots that h-e may some day do business with 
the man he is reaching. 

Daily papers, country estate journals, classified advertising in the 
magazines, these have all been used by poultrymen with varying suc- 
cess. The breeder must determine for himself their availability. 

Most breeders use a different box number in their address to know 
where the inquiry comes from. Some of them have changed initial 
in their name. They want to "key" their advertising and positively 
know where the business is coming from. 

It is a good idea to put this key on each card in the index so that at 
the end of the season the casting up of accounts with the joui*nals and 
advertising mediums can be rightly computed. 

One means of keeping before the reading public that is adopted by 
the live-wire breeder is making notes of his work and building them up 
into articles for the poultry journals and club catalogues. There can 
be nothing of an advertising nature in the articles yet if there is meat 
and food for thought in them they constittite a well-written advertise- 
ment. Editors are always glad to get little hints about your solving 
of daily poultry yard problems as well as the longer material. A well- 
written and exhaustive article in your club catalogue, the topic one 
worth serious effort, will do much to place a breeder at the head of his 
line. I know a breeder of Buff Wyandottes who has practically built 
up his business on the strong articles he had published in the club 
catalogues and journals, each one of them devoted solely to buff color 
breeding. 



78 The Western Poultry Guide 

The idea is to make one's name synonymous with the breed or vari- 
ety and to so keep before the buying public that mention of the breed 
will recall to mind the name or names behind it. When you think of 
Barred Rocks certain names spring to mind involuntarily. They have 
advertised themselves to that point w^here even the man who does not 
breed Rocks recalls their names when the breed is spoken of. The race 
is to the swift, strongly alive breeder who keeps before the people all 
the time. 

Advertising by means of coop banners in shows draws interested 
persons who want interviews with the breeder if they are not blatantly 
flaunted. Banners giving the idea that stock and eggs are so high in 
price that the average breeder or beginner could not afford to buy of 
you will do you little good. Two instances: Smaller exhibitors did a 
lot of business at one of the great southern fairs after it was noised 
about that a certain man in the class sold a breeding pen for a cool 
thousand. There will always be timid buyers. Another breeder who 
had won largely year after year at one of the big northern shows went 
out and bought a banner that blew this fact into the ears of visitors. 
His neighbor sold the most dollars worth of stuff at the show because 
he was modest and pleasing in personal contact and did not flaunt any 
high figures. As a rule high figures on winners are bad advertising. 

In getting advertising at the shows go in to win first. Buyers like 
to do their buying of a winner. Buy a bird or two to strengthen your 
line-up if necessary. This is just what you can eventually expect others 
to do of you when they need strength in their exhibits. Show records 
are a basis for advertising. They will continue so until the system 
changes radically from its present one. One of the best Red breeders 
in America shows his birds at all the large and small shows he can 
get the time to make displays at. It is through constant showing that 
you perfect yourself in the art of training show birds and fitting them. 
Remember, one cannot tell in what quarter business will be found. A 
certain large eastern breeder made a small but select display at a 
western show a few years ago and told me he sold more stuff at it 
than any other exhibition he had ever attended. There was a large 
idea in the novelty. A breeder who is known state wide could do the 
same thing by going to the best county show in his state and repeating 
the trick. 

The cash advertising appropriation should be made with a view to 
getting rid of the probable season's product. If you have reared five 
hundred birds and expect to sell four hundred of them as well as the 
old breeding stock you can plan on having to invest at least fifty cents 
per bird in advertising if you are known only locally. I have been 
pleased to spend one dollar each to sell three hundred head. This 
hicluded advertising, stamps, printing, catalogues, circulars, and all the 
little things except showing. One will have to make about a hundred 
sales to sell this number. The higher priced birds bear the least 



The Western Poultry Guide 79' 

expense each in the selling plan. This is especially true after you have 
made one good class through winning. 

If I were going to start with a new breed or variety today I would 
put fifty dollars in getting out five hundred nine by twelve eight-page 
catalogues, the paper to be hundred and twenty pound super-calandered 
stock. I would put cuts and matter in it that would make it kept by 
all who saw it. Then I would invest a hundred dollars in placing it in 
as many hands as I could by connecting with them through the journals. 
I might put another fifty with it to get the first edition out. If two- 
thirds of them went out before the egg season, they would make enough 
business to warrant a rather nice egg list with a record of the matings 
and this I would put out with a catalogue to all the eggs-for-hatching 
inquiries. The list of stock inquirers should be gone over also with the 
egg list mailed to each of them. This is assuming that I started in 
the spring with suficient breeders to give me about a hundred birds 
in the fall. 

My first space would be small. I should let folks know that I was 
breeding stock of my hobby before I had anything to sell. I know the 
labor of building up a trade and am speaking now from experience. 
Early in the fall I should increase this space, beginning first display 
advertising in my state poultry journals with probably a card in one 
of the larger journals of national importance. The rate card of every 
journal should be in my files. I would want to know about every 
journal that showed signs of being alive. I should study the advertis- 
ing of all the leading breeders and their literature. It would all help 
me to climb the ladder of breeding and selling success. 

If I happened to be successful in making some winnings the first 
time out with my stock I should build upon them in my advertising. 
The mere fact that John Jones or Sam Smith has a flock of such-and- 
such and has made certain winnings, does not make a good ad. If I 
was strong in certain particulars, I would let folks know it. If my 
flock was founded exceptionally well, they should know that. I would 
mention in detail what I had for sale, sexes, ages, its ripening time, 
prices for certain quality breeding stock, and other little essentials. 
I would word my ad. differently as possible from competition, give big 
value for the money and never let up on hammering into the public 
that I was a comer. ! 

A firm that made a big season's sales told me once that their 
sending to all breeders a series of plate-paper proofs of sketches of 
their winners had a great deal to do with that year's business. The 
idea was that fanciers who got them would place them on the walls of 
their homes because of the beauty of the prints, and the firm name 
could not be erased easily from the memory of the recipients. 

Another firm that is going big puts its faith into a big catalogue. 
They have the stock to back it up. They adhere to facts in show 
records, daies and exact winnings and places. New territory is reached' 
by showing in new places, increasing the mailing list, bringing out new 



;&0 The Western Poultry Guide 

ideas and going just a little further in certain forms of unique adver- 
tising than competitors. One breeder got started first by having a 
small incubator maker insert his advertisement in the incubator cata- 
logue. Incubator catalogues get into a lot of territory that the average 
breeder overlooks. A certain firm, now out of business, made a busi- 
ness of trying to get new advertisers to place advertising with them. 
The firm declared it would put out thirty or fifty thousand circulars 
and said they had room to get a breeder's advertising thereon as they 
could not fill the space. The inducements were many and the thing 
looked good, but they never issued the circulars. Know the firm. 
Many of them will carry no advertising other than their own. 

After-season sales can generally be best planned and made to pay 
"by running through the card index and offering to delinquent inquirers 
certain stock that has not moved fast, at reduced prices. The earlier 
you cut the price of eggs-for-hatching in two after the spring rush the 
greater will the business be. In working for advance orders it is well 
to make a price inducement, shipping time inducement for eggs, or 
:give extra quality when possible. The addition of an extra female or 
male in a fair-sized order has often brought in the order that hung 
fire. The thing is to keep in touch with the buyer. Get him to write 
as often as he will, asking the questions he cares to and which places 
him under obligations. Be persistent. Hammer all the time. Think 
out new wrinkles for each different customer who has an order worth 
getting. 

Some of the don'ts I might mention for ad. writers would choke 
you with mirth, yet I have taken a list of them from advertisements, 
each one picked out at the time it was seen because of its curiousness. 
Here is a line from a full page advertisement that leaves the reader of 
it further from the advertiser than before he read it: "Don't fail to 
read my catalogue containing matter on undertakings that no other 
breeder has ever written." If there is a single obscure idea or thought 
in an advertisement that one thing kills it. It is so in the case I cite. Be 
simple, lucid and trite in wording the advertisement. Have a certain 
position in the journal and stay there year after year. This gives a 
business that permanent note so essential to growth. There is a breeder 
on the rear outside cover of most of the big journals who changes his 
advertisement every month. His advertisements are turned to regu- 
larly by the breeders of that variety just for the sake of comparing 
v/hat he has to say this issue with what he said the month previous. 
He is a live advertiser. 

Nearly every breeder at a show is asked to increase his advertising 
space in the journals or else begin advertising with each of those 
which have representatives on the floor of the show room. The ad- 
vertising solicitor is generally a bit prejudiced in favor of his journal. 
But he is also full of advertising ideas that can be used to advantage. 
The wise breeder leams all he can from the solicitor about the use 
.and display of space, the way others are getting business, and what is 



The Western Poultry Guide 81 

going on in the field. There is nothing conducive to more business 
than pleasant personal relations with the advertising solicitor and 
field man. Many times he is in shape to sell a bit of stock for you or 
do you a turn that will head business your way. If you have the goods 
and show him over your plant he is the best advertisement in the 
world. 

The advertising contract is merely a memorandum of the amount 
cf space you will agree to use and the terms under which you buy it. 
It can generally be terminated at the space buyer's request. In fact, I 
never heard of more than one that was not. The publisher knows that 
he must have amicable personal relations with the advertiser if he is 
to be steadily patronized by him. Use all the space that you can 
afford. One never uses too much. Follow up the advertising in a 
journal with mentions of your new advertising matter and cuts of 
stock as often as you can consistently ask for their running. I know 
of nothing better to boost for business than cuts. 

LETTER VnilTING, CATALOGUE BUILDING, AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 

The letter of the breeder to the buyer reveals to the latter the very 
personality of the man he is dealing with. The impressions a letter 
makes on its recipient are hard to efface, whether they be good or bad. 
The mail order businesses depend wholly on letter writing in some of 
its forms to bolster up the business, tear it down or make it grow. It 
may not matter how successful a breeder is in the show room or exhi- 
bition hall, nor how attractive he may make prices, if he cannot write 
a warm, feeling, personal letter, attractively setting forth the merits 
of his stock, he will not stay in the business long. The appealing 
business letter is honest in it's sincerity, right to the point, neat, ac- 
curate, not skimpy, unbragging, personal in a friendly acquaintance 
that does not cross the line of familiarity, and couched in simple 
grammar. 

There was a breeder in the east, a producer of very good birds. 
He wrote a voluminous letter yet throughout the whole page or pages 
of it there was not a warm note. Chilliness prevailed and his mercenary 
character stood out conspicuously. It is needless to say he is now out 
of business. Another acquaintance writes a letter that does not 
convince even himself and yet he has never thought how his wording 
or getting up of a letter for his prospects would affect him if it came 
from some one who was trying to sell him a bird. The letter that 
appeals to you has a certain quality in it that goes to the human 
nature spot and commands attention. No matter how good birds you 
may have if you cannot convince a reader of your letter that they are 
as good as you believe them you cannot make the sale. When I first 
began poultry selling I kept the phrases of appeal that touched me. 
These I clipped out of each letter and reread often. Common place 
phrases such as: "Yours received of recent date"; "Your letter to 



82 The Western Poultry Guide 

hand"; I am in receipt of yours of the, etc." These phrases are good 
ones to avoid. The last one always seemed to me to be condescending 
to open what you may have written to the party who answered that 
way. Broad generalities are also bad. If you are making the sale 
of a single bird, go into detail about that bird. Give the head points, 
shape of neck, back, tail, breast and color — detail is what the buyer 
wants to know. If the bird is worth the money he will stand it. If 
there are more than a pair or trio in the shipment, even a breeding 
pen, describe each bird carefully. You may know they are right and 
worth the money and more, but if you do not tell what you know 
about them to the reader of your letter how is he to know? 

Honesty, clarity, perfect description, simple tenns, technical phi'ases 
'such as hackle, cape, throat, all being sections of the neck and indi- 
cative of a particular section of the neck) , friendliness interest in the 
customer, promptness, short sentences, spelling and neatness — these 
are the foundations for the successful poultryman's letter. When you 
get a quick reply with an order you may know that you have told the 
inquirer something that he particularly wanted to know about the bird 
before he bought. The more detail you get into the letter the quicker 
your correspondence is terminated and the time given to other 
prospects. 

Short sentences are generally clearest to the letter reader. They 
impart vim to the letter. If you cannot master a typewriter yourself, 
do as one breeder I know: Turn the machine over to a young member 
of the family and dictate the reply. With a little practice this is easily 
bandied. Get the letter out on a neat piece of stationery and if you 
have a particularly good half-tone which you can get an artist to work 
into a design for a letterhead this will greatly add to the letter's 
appeal. A design will not cost much. I have known one of the bestj 
artists to get out neat drawings for letters for five dollars. And it is 
the attention to these little details that bring business. The name of 
the farm, strain of birds, or your own name can be worked into the 
design and the plate is good for a lifetime to have more matter printed 
from it. 

Ruled paper is good for letters written in longhand. Unruled for 
typewriters is best. Have it of good quality and without a gloss finish. 
Neat large or small envelopes to match give the letter a tasty appear- 
ance. Novelties in the guise of letters are not business letters. They 
detract the attention from the contents. 

If your expected reply does not turn up within a fair length of 
time a short follow-up letter, asking if you have overlooked anything 
the buyer would like to know, is in order. Get out your carbon to his 
inquiry and see if there is something you have forgotten to mention as 
the buyer may think you have purposely done this. Do not make the 
follower too long. Better have it short and timely. 

Form letters are the best used when you are replying courteously 
to a general inquiry. They can be written on the machine at spare 



The Western Poultry Guide 63 

moments and having the appearance of genuine dictated letters are 
kept. In them it is well to ask if there is something specially wanted, 
Slating that you are in exceptionally good shape to fill the orders for, 
and inviting questions. It makes the recipient feel that you have not 
slammed a catalogue or mating list or circular into an envelope and 
begrudgingly mailed it to him. 

Circulars are generally six by nine, four or eight page affairs or 
catalogettes. They are unpretentious, should be gotten out on good 
paper stock, be well printed, and contain a rather shorter account of 
your flock and strain and its history than a catalogue. Circulars are 
abbreviated catalogues. The generalities of catalogue building can be 
applied to them. 

A general flock catalogue should be used to give the inquirer who 
knocks at your door an idea of what you can supply him. It should 
bG a history of your strain of birds, contain all of your winnings, and 
give in detail answers to all the questions which you will glean from 
the letters that come to you asking for information. Keep a list of the 
questions, making notes of them as they are taken from your inquiries 
and answer them in the reading matter of your catalogue. It is a 
good idea to make the catalogue a sort of book on the breeding and 
care of your hobbies. For a number of seasons before I issued a cata- 
logue I read all those and preserved them that impressed me as 
worthy. I had some ideas of my own that I was working out in the 
breeding and rearing of my birds and jotted these down on slips of 
paper which I placed on what I called my catalogue hook — where all 
the ideas worth using in that brochure might be had when wanted. 
One will gather good notes or schemes or phrases for wording certain 
parts of his catalogue and mating lists from many sources. These 
should be treasured until they are wanted. Ideas do not come 
flooding to a man's brain when he is drawing on it seriously for im- 
mediate purposes. Thought tickles ideas from the gray matter, so 
the scientists tell us. 

In laying out a catalogue decide on the number of pages you want 
to use. They should be in multiples of four. A twelve, sixteen or 
twenty page catalogue with cover is generally a good starter. Twelve 
pages of body and four of cover give sixteen pages that may be used to 
display the merits of the stock. Ask a half dozen different printers who 
make a specialty of poultry printing to give you dummies or blank cata- 
logues of the size wanted, and their prices for printing. You should 
use eight or ten point type for the body of the matter you will write to 
go in it. One interview with a printer who has done catalogue work 
will make you fairly well acquainted with size of type, paper values 
and a host of details. If you are in a city a few visits of this kind at 
the smaller shops will put you in shape to talk to the bigger ones or 
v/rite an intelligent letter about what sort of work you want done. 

I think that a nine by twelve inch page is the nicest catalogue size, 
affording big display for extra fine cuts and making a nice type page 



S4 The Western Poultry Guide 

when run two columns to the page. If you have decided on size — and 
i-cimember that a catalogue of the size I mention cuts with less waste 
and costs less in proportion than another size — bind your body of 
twelve or eight or sixteen pages together (common letterheads of this 
size will do for your first dummy) and put outside a cover of manila. 
Firmly fasten the cover to the body. Number the pages. On the 
outside front cover should be the title. Give it the name of your farm, 
strain, self or other display that you have decided upon. Remember 
you are advertising birds rather than yourself. The address, farm 
name, strain, and a modest cut are about all that is necessary. Inside 
the front cover place the infoi-mation most buyers want to know in 
short, snappy sentences. Give the express offices you can ship by, 
when and how you like visitors to your flock and plant, whether you 
prepay charges on stock or eggs, the weight of single settings, doubles, 
fifties and hundred lots, the weight of single birds cooped, pairs, trios, 
pens, how you ship, feed and water, some of your best testimonials and 
other items that have suggested themselves to you. 

Page one can be used in inti'odvicing youi'self and birds to those who 
may not have heard of your show record, the utility value of your flock 
and its history of founding and steady climb into the limelight. At the 
top of this page it might be a nice thing to have a cut of your general 
poultry farm and residence premises. This cultivates personal feeling, 
or friendship, especially if the farm is attractive. 

The next few pages can be best used to give the illustrations of your 
winning birds and their breeding, what crosses of blood have given 
you best results, testimonials and your breeding and rearing plans. 
The more information that you can crowd into your catalogue about 
successful breeding and rearing, the longer will that printed matter be 
retained and reread. Looking through the best catalogues that come 
io you will give you the ideas. They will stimulate others. If you are 
pedigree breeding the details of your work will interest buyers. Should 
you breed more than one variety better keep the page or pages devoted 
to each free from matter of any other breed. 

Your method of packing eggs for shipment, how well they have 
arrived at their destination and hatched, with names and dates, gives 
a wonderful strength to the egg trade. The success of your patrons 
in the show room and what they have produced from matings you may 
have sent them is also good material. Generally this can be had by 
keeping in close touch with your clientele. Most of them will not object 
to its use, though it is best to ask them if you may use their 
testimonials. 

As you grow more and more into the advertising and publicity 
work of the poultry breeding and selling business you will see the 
advantages of a summer sale list to get rid of the breeding stock. It 
i.s not profitable to carry them over when you have an extra good lot 
coming on. 



The Western Poultry Guide 85 

Mating lists can be gotten up each spring and placed inside your 
catalogues for the egg season. Refer to your card index and see if 
you have mailed a catalogue to the inquiring party before wasting one 
by covering the same field twice. If he has been sent a catalogue let 
the mating list with your additional winnings of the winter, if they 
are not in the catalogue, go to the inquirer in a small envelope. The 
mating list should give an accurate description of all the females \n 
your breeding pens as well as the males. The highei priced eggs you 
expect to sell, the more will the buyer want to know about them. 
Anything specially attractive should be dwelt upon. 

Stock catalogues are best issued in the fall. I would send a new 
catalogue of my general flock and farm and business methods to all 
the inquirers who had asked for the previous one, though it is not wise 
to send more than two catalogues and two mating lists to an inquirer 
who has not patronized you. I have always noted, however, that as 
soon as a new catalogue got into the hands of readers business picked 
up splendidly. A correct method of keeping up the card index will tell 
you where to place the new catalogue. Dwell on a new catalogue in 
your advertising just as soon as issued. The buying of printing will 
teach you that three thousand catalogues can be bought for nearly the 
price of two thousand. If you are exhibiting at a state fair and work 
persistently to pick out the interested people you can give away from 
two to three hundred which will bear fruit. Keep their names and 
addresses and index them, making note that they have had a catalogue. 
Other things being right, you will be surprised to note the business 
these will later bring into the office. Generally speaking the specialists 
who do poultry printing will do you better work for the money than 
general printers. Get them to bid on the work. 

The more good photos and line drawings or retounched photos you 
can afford the better for your advertising. The up-to-the-hour fancier 
has a camera which permits him to work on the ground glass, to 
make pictures of his birds when they are in their prime. There is a 
man in Iowa who built up a five thousand dollar l^arred business on 
the strength of his photos. The history of poultry selling began to 
expand when good illustrations entered the poultry journals and 
leading breeders' catalogues. One catchy photo will often lead to 
many sales. 



CONTENTS 



Page 

CHAPTER I 5 

In The Beginning 

Charles McAlister 

CHAPTER II 10 

Comparison of the Breeds and Varieties 
G. W. Grebe 

CHAPTER III 18 

Cotyimercial Poultry Raising in the Northwest 
Capt. A, Waldwick 

CHAPTER IV 25 

Progressive Poultry Culture — Houses and Feeding 
J. H. Davis 

CHAPTER V 32 

Incubation 

H. F. Rau 

CHAPTER VI 37 

Room Brooding and the Best Way to Start in the Poultry Business 
D. Tancred 

CHAPTER VII 45 

From Eight-week Old Pullets to Eggs 
I. D. Casey 

CHAPTER VIII 48 

The Market Mayi and the Poultry Man 

C. G. Shawen 

CHAPTER IX , • 54 

Successful Poultry Raising — Common Sense and Fresh Air 
B. S. Kennedy 

CHAPTER X 61 

Poultry Diseases — Their Causes and Prevention 
G. E. Conkey 

CHAPTER XI 72 

Sanitary Water Fountains 

D. H. Gray 

CHAPTER XII 76 

Advertising and Poultry Selling 
Amos Burhans 



^AR II 1913 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

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